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

People were not aware of this Act in the context of mortgages and the requirements on banks. Therefore, they may not have made the connection, or made the complaint to the Central Bank. This Act, and I want the witnesses to confirm this to me in writing, sets out what has to be done very clearly, what the offence is and what the penalties are. The Central Bank does not have flexibility in this matter. It has to abide by this Act, even down to an individual case. The witnesses said that they have an individual case, and that is fine. I am applying this to what I and other financial advisers have seen. It is now the case that there is considerable disquiet over the fact that this covering page was never there, is missing or did not contain the information that legislation requires it to do.

The question I started out with was whether, in the context of the Central Bank's examination of these documents - the witnesses said there was forensic examination of the documents - it found that throughout the banks, not just one bank, this was a feature of the documentation of the banks generally? I want the witnesses to consider this and they may want to examine this issue before they answer. I have seen it and I am deeply concerned that this information was not made available to people.