Mr. Padraic Kissane:

Honestly, as I have said before, I do not care. My intention was only ever that everyone would be given back their tracker mortgage. It is absolutely the case that there are concerns but I would hate for the real life issue of the tracker rate being restored to be lost in the debate over who was or was not guilty. There are people who engaged in deliberate actions but they probably did so with the intention of trying to save their bank and secure its profits. The reasons they did it could have been laudable but it was still wrong. I have been asked how much of it was criminality and whether it was fraud many times. That was never my concern. If I press that button I would lose control of what people want, which is having their tracker rate restored. They are not interested in the wider aspect. Obviously they are very important questions in this forum and for the Central Bank. If it needs to move to that level, I would give what I know but for now, my concern is for my customers. I have moved from getting them back to the tracker to the clean-up phase which was always going to be the tougher part of the job. The banks nearly sighed with relief when they put the customers back on tracker but they did not know the carnage that would arrive at their door. I did not expect Permanent TSB's appeal panel to treat it as it did, with the one panel cap.

What was astonishing about the appeals was that the more serious ones were with the independent review panel. All of those bar two were resolved with me. It is quite astonishing. An oral hearing was given to everybody. If I were to raise any issue here, it would be that, while appeals take time, the people need to be heard. One cannot put into that what it has done to people. It must be acknowledged that it is not easy for the people brought in. Astonishingly, bringing an appeal that has merits is therapeutic. It is actually the best way to draw a line on the matter. It has nothing to do with the level of compensation. I know many believe compensation is what is desired. I have asked the question on compensation in my office umpteen times but I have never got an answer from a borrower to the effect that he or she wanted €1 million back. None of them is looking for it. They just want the wrong to be acknowledged and proper compensation to reflect it. Most of them ask for a genuine "Sorry" because they do not believe what was printed.