Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness for his presentation and opening statement. It is absolutely disgusting that Mr. Gerry Mallon is not here today. This is a scandal for which Ulster Bank has had to make a provision of €211 million, yet he does not see fit to come before the committee to answer questions. He should consider changing the bank's name from "Ulster Bank" to "Ambiguous Bank". It is hard to even ask intelligent questions. There is so much fudge around when everything happened or did not happen. I find it absolutely exasperating that he is not before us today, benefiting as he is from the bank. I will try to confine my questions, but as others have said, we get more letters from Ulster Bank customers than from those of all the other banks combined, and that is not by accident. There is nothing ambiguous about that.

We must also remember that in December 2016, Ulster Bank promised that all customers would be written to by the end of the year. Perhaps Ulster Bank did write to them. I will give the witnesses an example of one customer. Since January 2016, he has received the same letter over and over again. I laughed earlier when Ms Arnett referred to a "high degree of variation". There certainly is not a high degree of variation in Ulster Bank's contact with these customers. I do not accept that the degree of complexity prevents Ulster Bank from communicating effectively with its customers, because some of these calculations can be made by the homeowners themselves, as indeed they have been. These are customers who are paying 3.75% interest as things stand. They know they have overpaid by, say, €300 a month over ten years, so they know the overpayment amounts to €30,000. They know that is what is due to them, compensation aside. As such, it is extremely frustrating for us and for them to see that we are here two years later. They are still opening their envelopes, getting the same thing over and over.

There are so many contradictions in what the witnesses say about the way they treat customers. Mr. Stanley's opening statement claimed:

"The letters we write to customers are designed to complete a picture for them. In some cases these can contain up to 30 pages but they also include a summary. They contain a full financial statement going back to the month when the impact happened and provide a month by month statement for the years the impact happened."

Very good. However, that is not what customers are telling us.