Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The charges he made against me are all designed to create an illusion nothing has happened since the tracker mortgage issue was identified. It is relevant to the deliberations of this committee that fines have been levied, the Central Bank has used the powers available to it and today there has been a development with regard to that investigation. What the Deputy is looking to do, and I want to call it out, is to create the inference my motives here are about trying to protect some elite or trying to protect those who are already powerful or wealthy. That is what the Deputy is doing and he is wrong. The inference and the suggestion he created by the accusations he laid at my feet earlier on that little or nothing has happened since the tracker mortgage scandal first emerged is wrong and he knows it is wrong. Companies have been fined. The Central Bank has taken action.

There has been a development in that today and that has happened due to powers the Central Bank has. That is a matter of fact.

The Deputy put a question to me about whether a senior executive would be accountable if he or she became aware of information. The answer to that question is "Yes". As to how that responsibility would then be defined, it would be done with regard to the competencies and responsibility that person is meant to hold and whether they have been infringed by him or her having information that informs him or her of practices that the company should not have been involved in and that he or she did not take action about. The short answer to that question is "Yes".