Ms Gráinne McEvoy:

I would not agree with that. The Central Bank plays a very important role in protecting the interests of consumers, including through our gatekeeping function, where we only allow those actors who have strong business models in place that are capable of being supervised on an ongoing basis and have a culture of compliance. We apply robust fitness and probity assessments on individuals managing and running firms across the financial services sector. We have very detailed and prescriptive rules in terms of guidance, regulations and code requirements, seeking to ensure firms at all times act in the best interests of their customers and treat them fairly. We seek to ensure a strong and robust framework is in place to support the best interests of consumers.

We proactively and actively supervise a multitude of different sectors within our directorate. At least 13, if not 14, different sectors are supervised within the Central Bank and specifically supervised within the consumer protection division in terms of their conduct and engagement with all of their consumers, both Irish and non-Irish. We have a long history of very credible enforcement action relating to firms falling under our remit where we have found they are acting outside the legislation or the consumer protection code or, at its most basic, are not acting in the best interests of their customers or are not treating them fairly. All of that information is publicly available on our website.

There is a national framework for protecting consumers and we are one of the actors in that framework. The committee plays a role in terms of ensuring the legislative framework is robust and is there to guard and protect the best interests of consumers. The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman plays its role in respect of dealing with individual consumer complaints across the financial services sector and we play our role in regulating the firms that provide services to customers and ensuring they meet our high standards, are proactive and positive in terms of their engagement with consumers and ensure their best interests are protected.