Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I believe Professor Lane is wrong. That is my honest view. When I read through the documentation, I believe it is clear and that he is on very thin ice. He has selectively relied on one clause in the mortgage contract which refers to the prevailing rate. He is shaking his head. Will he, please, hear me out? There is no definition whatsoever of the "prevailing rate". The clause is very clear that the customer is entitled to a tracker interest rate mortgage loan. It goes on to mention the bank's prevailing rate which is undefined, but Professor Lane seems to have no regard to the corresponding clause that defines what a tracker interest rate mortgage loan is. The only variable element is the ECB rate, plus the tracker margin which is stated elsewhere in the mortgage documentation. This is common to the other mortgages caught up in this cohort. Professor Lane should let me finish. Kicking this down the line to the appeals mechanism, the ombudsman and perhaps the courts is a cop-out. The best chance customers have at this stage of having this issue dealt with is through the regulator. In AIB's case 4,000 instances have been identified. The delegates have said, perhaps ten times between all of them, that while this is at a systemic level, the individual cases will go through and that the individuals concerned will have recourse to all of the further steps. If the matter is not dealt with now, the chances of the ombudsman overturning it are quite slim because Professor Lane has given the Central Bank's endorsement in broad terms to the approach of the institutions to this issue. It has been signed off on.