Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Why would they even have to go to the courts? Why should it not be a matter of principle? Let me take a section of a letter I have from one of the bank's customers. It states that with the help of the committee and Padraic Kissane, the writer was reinstated on a tracker mortgage last summer after a battle of almost ten years and that it was life changing for his family. He states he received redress and compensation and a cheque of a certain amount to cover both, and a sum was taken off his mortgage. He also states he is working with Mr. Kissane on an appeal. The letter also states the amount of compensation awarded to the individual dwarfs the amount he has had to spend over the past ten years in preparing a case for the ombudsman, working with various financial advisers and voluntary organisations to try to get the bank to own up to what its CEO, Ms Howard, has just apologised for to the Irish people. The amount of money he had to spend will not be covered as a point of principle by the bank. Mr. Stanley is telling me this customer must appeal, perhaps to the ombudsman or through the courts, for the bank to give him what he should never have had to spend in the first place because the reason he spent it was because the bank took his money.