Mr. Padraic Kissane:

With regard to the four people who were brave enough to come forward with me on the tracker issue and the effect it had, as I said in one of my previous presentations to the committee, the difficulty with much of what is going on is that our Irishness is being used against us. What I mean by this is that people here feel a sense of shame if they miss a loan repayment or are unable to pay a debt. This is built into our make-up and the fabric of every one of us. The concern I have is that the vultures know this. They know damn well nobody will come forward. I have spoken with various television companies about having people appear in television programmes in silhouette and I have been told it would make them look like criminals. I stated they cannot show their faces on camera because they would be known forever more. This is a small country. My point is that perhaps it would be appropriate for the committee to get some examples from people who are brave enough to appear and get another four people to come in to discuss the issues, including ISME representatives and farmers. These should be people who will stand up and say they do not care what they have signed and they will tell their story and how it happened to them. It is difficult to do this. The example of the four people summarised how difficult it was but we must consider the effect it had when they did so. We need to pass on to the customers affected the message that there are people who will stand by them and go shoulder to shoulder with them. I say to every client on the day he or she comes into me that the problem may not have been solved but it has been shared.