Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion

Mr. Ger Deering:

The answer is that we have significant powers because the legislation provides that we can request any document or record that is required. There are provisions in the legislation for obstruction if a provider does not do that. On occasion, we have had to threaten to use those powers to make sure that we got the information we wanted. We also have the powers of seizure to go in and collect evidence, if required. We have not had occasion to use that but it is available to us. The kernel of this point is that some of this information is buried in algorithms and very detailed information but we have the powers to collect the information. We need to upskill ourselves sufficiently to analyse that information and to know how to deal with it, but it will be quite challenging to prove that. I will not say otherwise. We are not in the criminal sphere. We prove on the balance of probability in terms of what is happening. It is an evidence-based process and we will collect what evidence we can collect.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.