Mr. John O'Beirne:

As Ms McDonagh said, we have made it a priority to bring the tracker issue to a conclusion under the full extent of the examination framework. I met a set of the representatives of the group to which the Deputy referred earlier this week. I have also met many of the parties individually over the past 12 to 18 months or so. We are restricted in what we can say here because we are still part of an ongoing analysis and discussion. However, I went through in depth with the representatives the reasons there is a difference in inclusion or exclusion.

While we have not seen anything yet that indicates an entitlement to a tracker mortgage, I understand the impact that this has had on people and the way they are framing it right down to the human level in terms of what it means to have seen some colleagues returned to tracker mortgages when they have not been. We sought to be as expansive as possible. It is a group of staff who were never on trackers and did not take up the offer of a tracker when it was given, but I do not want to pre-empt anything. I have given them an undertaking to re-examine the specifics of the issue in light of some of the additional points that they have brought to bear. I have also given an undertaking to discuss the matter with the Central Bank.