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

Mr. Kincaid said that most of the tracker mortgages that were considered as part of that investigation are concluded. That is not so from my perspective. I have come across a great many tracker mortgage issues where the bank has simply dragged its heels and has not resolved the issues. That is why they are still in dispute. That is why I bring it up here. The tracker mortgage scandal, in my opinion, is not concluded. I said earlier to the Governor that what is happening here is that some of these loans are being sold to pass on the distressed mortgage, even though it is still a tracker issue. Some of them are being forced into court if there is a receiver involved. The cases I have inform me to the extent that I believe the Central Bank has an obligation to go through the remains of that investigation and ensure the banks are not hiding any more tracker mortgage issues. If the Central Bank does that, it will then be informed of those that are outstanding and those that are being put into question by the bank in an unreasonable way.

I looked at some of the paperwork and I have to say that the alleged fraud jumps out at me in terms of a number of these cases. I ask Mr. Kincaid to take that on board as being a relevant piece of information and to investigate the banks further on these issues. I am not happy at all with the outcome. I am happy in general but not in regard to specific cases that remain. As long as they remain, this committee and Parliament have an obligation to ensure that the banks are pursued until such time as the Central Bank is happy that everything has been concluded. If there are individual cases – I know individual cases are not investigated – the Central Bank has to take from the cases a direction of some kind because they are telling us something.