Ms Helen Dooley:

The Deputy has made a good point. In the past few years, the regulator has introduced, in the context of the consumer protection code, an obligation on banks to write to their mortgage and deposit customers annually to outline the different rate options available. That is an obligation that was introduced in the last couple of years. With the benefit of hindsight, we can question whether that should have been an obligation since we started lending money, but it was not. The Deputy mentioned the legal rights of individuals. Outside of contractual documentation, the customer had a right to request a switch to a tracker and Deputy Murphy appears to have suggested that he did not make that request.