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

We are down to the really difficult cases now, having dealt with quite a number of others. I have seen the banks become more aggressive. I am not singling out Bank of Ireland but speaking in general. Through the courts, the banks have become more aggressive. It concerns me because of the number of cases still in the courts. I urge Bank of Ireland to get a decent handle on each case, or on the firm representing it in each case, to ensure some form of understanding is applied to what is being done in court, particularly where there is a lay litigant or a family trying to retain its home. It may not always be explained clearly to the firm that the bank is open to discussions or to listening to the customer's case. The opposite happens in the court scene in that the customer is subject to aggression and asked for the keys.

The paperwork is not sound in some of these cases. There is a great deal of angst on the part of customers. One of the ways to address that is to highlight it here and suggest there is a need for some guidance for those legal firms when they deal with those cases.

If somebody is invited to consider a case in an independent process, would that normally be carried out in-house? Is an independent process seen as another arm of the bank investigating the case, or is it truly independent when someone is invited to examine the case?