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

I have an example of the arrogance of one bank with respect to a matter relating to a tracker mortgage. I will not get into names or details, except to say that the matter involves Bank of Ireland. I have pursued this to the bitter end to try to resolve this issue for a particular man. From the paperwork he accumulated through freedom of information processes, it is clear that this man has been wronged in the process relating to tracker mortgages and there is a repossession order against his house on the basis of documentation that is incomplete. The attitude of Bank of Ireland is to say to the person that he should not write to it again and the matter has been dealt with. The attitude is one of stonewalling and preventing an individual going to the nth degree to defend his home on the basis of his belief that he is right. He is a lay litigant against a raft of well-paid barristers and solicitors. The bank has not demonstrated a customer-friendly approach and when it entered into an independent review of the case, it was conducted by the bank. This is what people are finding in their banks.

There is the case of another individual. She has daughters living with her in the house but she is constantly threatened by the bank. This has not changed and it is still going on. I say it to the witnesses because I want to emphasise that citizens of this State are relying on the Central Bank to keep a check on banks. I cannot say that loudly or often enough. I know this is the case having spoken to a large number of people around the country who are affected by everything that is going on. There is also the question of rates. If we go back to 2005, for example, is there a graph indicating the various increases in tracker rates over the years and an explanation from banks as to how they move or are increased? Would that come from an individual bank?