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

I am impressed by the fact that the witnesses say their task is moving minds and hearts and to be fair. I do not want to over-egg this but I do want to make clear that our experience here is that bankers are a heartless bunch, they do not know how to spell fair and their mindset is so trapped in beating up the customer that I do not know how the board will do them the favour of releasing them from that kind of make-up.

Maybe I should not do it, but I read a lot of the papers that clients of banks bring to me and see what they have tried to do with the banks. What strikes me is the amount of information that banks send out to their clients in answer maybe to a freedom of information request. It is never all of the paperwork. Without going into any detail the Bank of Ireland recently gave out so much paperwork on a second occasion that the case the client had against the bank was proven. The bank had been sitting on it all the time. It then said to its customer that it would not write to him anymore and he was left to battle as a lay litigant. That brings us to the courts and the McKenzie Friends issue and practice direction 72, introduced by, I think, Mr. Justice Peart; it is in the public arena so I do not mind saying it. It needed to be talked to. I am mightily impressed that the judge would engage like that with individuals in his court and try to show them the two things that are never mentioned in this room by the banks, humanity and compassion. They do not have a clue what they are doing and they are wrecking society. They are still at it.

He should not underestimate the banks. As he is doing this, they are outsourcing their dirty work, they are still condemning people to a lifetime of poverty and they are reckless in their abuse of their position in the face of families in society that are crumbling. It really disturbs me. I wish Mr. Justice Hedigan well. He is welcome to come back.