Professor Philip Lane:

Yes, absolutely and this is very important. I know there has been a lot of concern about the amount of compensation. From the word "Go" we have made sure that the banks' schemes had some core principles, one of which is that the amount of compensation increases for the more costly and more damaging cases. At the extreme end, in loss-of-home situations, the compensation will be greatest. We talk about 15% in the aggregate because we have a universal approach. The examination also includes minor cases where customers may have lost €100 through some calculation error, for example. The fraction of compensation for smaller cases is obviously smaller than 15% but in more severe cases, it is larger.

I must heavily emphasise that the appeals mechanism is operational now and there will be a lot more appeals. The appeals mechanism is there for people whose individual circumstances were particularly difficult. Members know from hearings at this committee and from private engagements with constituents that there are many difficult cases where the initial offer will not be the final payment. It is only through the independent appeals mechanism that the details of each individual family's situation can be factored into the final appropriate amount of compensation. It is important to emphasise that the 15% aggregate number does not mean that this figure applies to all cases. There is a lot of variation because we have insisted that compensation levels go up in line with the scale of the harm. The fraction of compensation is going to be a lot bigger in serious cases. Another way of saying this is that for a minor issue, the law says that we can only insist on redress. The principle of the law on redress essentially is that there has been some financial cost but that is it. Compensation is there to reflect all of the other emotional and family costs that have been borne. We have set it up so that the amount of compensation goes up in line with the degree of harm. The independent appeals mechanism is the way to make sure that the full circumstances of each individual case where there was serious harm can be reflected in the final payment.