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

We are going to have to face this. They are not doing that. The banks are pulling the wool over the eyes of the Central Bank.

This committee has asked the Central Bank about repossessions and the attitude of banks. The evidence that is contained in the various loan portfolio sales proves that the banks must have obviously stockpiled the bad loans, not spent money on their legal fees, not offered the full suite of options and been willing to go to the sale and allow the vultures to deal with it. I want to follow through on this matter. I am quite annoyed by the Central Bank because I do not believe it has done half enough against the banks and it certainly is not doing enough against the vulture funds. Let us say a loan goes to a vulture fund. I cannot get in touch with a vulture fund on behalf of a client who might come to me for help; it is impossible to speak to one person and it is impossible to get them to focus on the actual loan that one is representing because they just do not care.

We are constantly told about the legal framework and whatever protection travels with the loan. As I have stated on many occasions, the Central Bank should be on the other side of this. I can name names, but they are all the same. The Central Bank cannot deal with them because they do not have an interest. Having said that, the Central Bank has all the information because it gets it from the relevant bank before it sells to a vulture fund. The Central Bank is aware of a bank's activity in the context of what it offers its customers. Where is its consumer protection hat in this regard? When does the consumer protection aspect within the Central Bank kick in? When does it tell the banks that, on the basis of the information it has, they do not seem to be doing enough for their customers? When does it start protecting customers, families and individuals?