Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

AIB is providing €190 million. Both banks discontinued the trackers at the same time. Ms McDonagh was head of retail banking in HSBC in the UK and Europe. Was she surprised when she arrived at how the tracker issue had been dealt with? She might elaborate on that in the context of her comment that the bank should have dealt with it quicker. I am paraphrasing, but that is the general intent of what she said. What did she mean in saying it should have been dealt with quicker? Finally, I do not wish to appear rude but the Central Bank was insisting on those 6,000 customers being included. As to saying the banks were doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, I have no doubt that the Central Bank would probably have insisted on them being included. We are reaching the end of the tracker issue. What often happens with these big investigations of schemes that go on for so long is that customers get fatigued and, effectively, it is steamrolled at the end.

In view of Ms McDonagh's breadth of experience as head of retail banking with a bank in the UK, was she surprised by what she saw and why did she state that it should have been dealt with more quickly? How could it have been dealt with quicker?