Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman is not before me and I am not asking that office how it dealt with its consumer protection role. Witnesses from the Central Bank are before us. The bank has a statutory obligation in terms of consumer protection. The witnesses were fully aware through the tracker mortgage examination that banks had been fleecing their customers. Members of this committee pointed out this cohort of individuals, other forums such as Askaboutmoney, which I am sure the bank monitors, and other groups were campaigning on this issue but the Central Bank completely abdicated its consumer protection role for this cohort of individuals. I acknowledge what the bank did at later stages for others but for this cohort, how could it get so wrong? We cannot turn back the clock but we need to have faith in the Central Bank that this will not happen again. It is terrible that an organ of the State, which is in place to protect consumers, in the middle of a major scandal basically washed its hands of these customers and left them to decide whether they would or would not take it any further.