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

When the Central Bank of Ireland wants to push something to one side here, we are told it is a matter being contested in the courts. EBS and AIB tell us that. Therefore, we cannot get to the end of it and the bank will not get to the end of it. The bank hopes that, over time, those who are making the complaints will simply fall away. It is the same approach taken with the customers. Let us put this straight. The original figure for the tracker issue was 8,700 and if it was not for the people who came forward and gave evidence before this committee, as well as the work of this committee, we would not be where we are today. The banks would have ridden roughshod over every single one of them and not given them a leg to stand on.

That is the disgraceful nature of banking in this country. If properly supervised, vulture funds and banks would not get away with it, but we cannot supervise them because we have locked ourselves into a legal or regulatory straitjacket. The Central Bank can properly supervise the banking system. If it cannot, it should go to the Minister to state that its powers must be improved to enable it to knock these institutions into shape before they do further damage to families and communities.