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

Is the ombudsman clearly marking out territory in that regard? Is he being soft soaped by banking organisations? I ask this with respect to the office. I have been examining the amount they pay for BPFI membership and one bank disclosed that it pays €125,000 per year. The other banks would not disclose that figure, which is shameful. I will come back to that again when those representatives come before us. Likewise, the banks pay money to the Irish Banking Culture Board and staff have been seconded to that board. These are two significant organisations and one does nothing else except support the banks. Some of the statements coming from them are shocking to the core because they reflect a change in the bank attitudes from where they were a few years ago to where they were prior to the crash. It will be interesting to see how the culture board sets out its position as not being beholden to the banks that fund it.

Is the ombudsman exercising his full authority with respect to the conversations he may have with the BPFI? Are its representatives clear that regardless of what they do or say, or how many cups of tea everybody may have together, the ombudsman is not on anyone's side except the side of fairness, justice, redress and so on?