Mr. David Hall:

History will reveal the position of the four people who presented themselves before this committee. I deal with people every day. Journalists ring every day looking for individuals to tell their stories on a host of issues. It is next to impossible to get people to speak about their circumstances because of ludicrous comments, challenges and suggestions concerning their own behaviour and circumstances in life. History will dictate. What happened on the day the four people appeared before this committee and the work the committee did thereafter transformed the approach to the tracker scandal. Over 10,000 people were correctly included in the scheme thereafter. I commend the work and the presentation of the individuals. It is not easy for anybody to appear before an Oireachtas committee, let alone speak about his or her personal circumstances live at a committee and take questions for which he or she may not be prepared. Considerable support should be given to the people in question and they should be commended on the work they did on behalf of everybody else. They blew up the tracker scandal at the time because of what they said.

I strongly disagree with Mr. Burgess on the effect this has on people. Unless people are in the circumstances in question or see the eyes of someone who has been treated in such a way and who has had to make life-changing decisions because of a financial crash and who has faced a major personal challenge affecting his life, they will never understand. They should not even try to claim they understand because they do not.