Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. For the record, it is not acceptable that the chief executive officer of the bank has not appeared before the committee today. I note that the bank provided further information and its opening statement quite late yesterday. If all the other banks were able to provide the information when requested by the committee, Ulster Bank should have been able to do so. I welcome that despite the bank's reservations regarding appearing before the committee at this time, it nevertheless accepted the committee's request.

I wish to raise a number of issues. I acknowledge that we are only dealing with the tracker mortgage issue today and that we will have an opportunity on another day to discuss issues related to the global restructuring group, GRG, and the revelations that are being uncovered in respect of Ulster Bank's parent body in Britain. Hopefully, that will flow into a full investigation into Ulster Bank's activities here.

In regard to where Ulster Bank is at in terms of phase 2, the Central Bank is in dispute with Ulster Bank on the final numbers.