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

I will give the deputation a sense of the response from the public when we do that. I will outline a case that touches on the point. I am not going into detail but I want you to understand the effect it has. A borrower who was with Permanent TSB for the past ten years got a letter from the bank at the beginning of August saying the mortgage had been transferred. The borrower fell into arrears in 2016 for six months and the amount was €3,000. The mortgage is being transferred. The borrower has outlined in detail in the letter the fact that the family are living in fear and feel they have been very badly treated by the bank. That is a letter from one of Permanent TSB's customers.

I have highlighted another case. The writer says to me that Permanent TSB issued a response that was received a little over a week ago. The writer is not happy with the response and does not believe the bank actually looked at anything in any different way. The writer simply got holding letters. If you think that is a response in some sort of special way to a member of the committee, I do not agree with you.

Other correspondence relates to a case I raise with the bank officials. Out of courtesy, this person wrote back to give me the update. The person said there was no outcome whatsoever from Permanent TSB or even a response from Mr. Masding regarding the €60,000 overpayment. It is now one year since the query began and eight months since Mr. Masding said he would look into it and nothing constructive has happened.

I have before me another letter from an individual whose loans have been sent on to a vulture fund and sold again by that vulture fund to someone else. What struck me about it was that it started at a very low amount. There was a resolution to it. The man went into bad health and tried to deal with it as best he could. Again the response from the bank was such that he believes he got no hearing whatsoever.

These are some of the letters I wanted to refer to and say to you that the bank is not building confidence with its customers by virtue of the number of letters I receive and by your interaction with this committee. I will pass some of these letters on to you again in the hope that you will look at them in a different way. For the record, I find your approach to all of this shocking, as is what you are prepared to do for the bottom line in your bank.

Deputy Burton, do you want to ask a question before we wrap up?