Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Central Bank has done an immense body of work but it was not too long ago that it was before this committee. Certainly, I would have thought the Central Bank was slow in coming to the table in terms of moving on the issue of tracker mortgages. Once it commenced, it did a considerable amount of work but it was certainly slow in terms of really engaging in depth on tracker mortgages. We had various meetings here. I want to acknowledge the work that is done. However, when I look back through it and look through the Official Report, I am prompted to inquire about what the Central Bank is doing differently. It was revealed that for many years the banks were effectively using customers' money in terms of inflated interest charges on trackers. We did a considerable body of work here as did many other people. If the investigation was not undertaken by the Central Bank it would have never come to light. What is the Central Bank doing differently now to ensure that something like the trackers cannot happen again? It was light-touch regulation back then. I want Ms Rowland to tell me how she would define the regulation now, rather than giving me a preamble and going into what we all know happened. I want to hear what type of work the Central Bank is doing now that is different in terms of regulation of the banks to ensure this will not happen again.