Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not trying to fault the office of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. I am just trying to understand the numbers. The fact that the office is so new has meant that people had to make a call one way or the other. That will probably not arise to the same extent in the longer term.

Many of the points related to tracker mortgages have been raised. To make a general point, the statement last week by KBC Bank's group chief executive, for which I acknowledge he more or less apologised, highlighted that the Irish Banking Culture Board has its work cut out for it because the view seems to be that we should just forget about the tracker issue and get on with it because it this issue was not a big deal. The tracker mortgages issue was an enormous deal to the more than 40,000 families and households affected. The committee has discussed this issue at length, as I am sure Mr. Deering's office will have noted. As someone who is dealing with all the problems and seeing the banks at their worst rather than their best, where does Mr. Deering believe the Irish banking system has come in the past ten years? Does it still have a lot of work to do to develop a culture in which fairness, transparency, openness and an understanding that the customer should be central becomes crucial in everything the banks do? The remark made last week is fairly damaging. It is damning in highlighting how some people are really thinking.