John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All the emails I have received from various customers since our last meeting suggest they have tried in vain to deal with the banks. Mr. O'Sullivan said his bank made an average of 32 attempts to deal with customers to find a solution. I cannot give him a number because it is his bank and his customers but I get a sufficient number of emails to tell me that customers have been endeavouring to talk to the bank without success over a long number of years. Following the last exchange we had and the announcement that the bank was selling this bundle of loans, a number of people have come forward to say they may be included in the sale, that they are fearful and cannot get an answer from the bank about a remedy for their particular circumstances. It would appear the bank's efforts to drill down into these figures and contact those affected have not been as successful as I would have expected.