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

I have some questions I want to ask. Before I do, I want to remind everyone of what was said by the Central Bank in its headings regarding its key findings. It said that AIB:

Failed to consider the entitlements of customers when it withdrew the tracker mortgage product ...

Breached customers' mortgage contracts, delayed in rectifying the breach, and failed to take immediate and conclusive action to determine for these customers the financial implications of its wrongdoing ...

Wrongfully excluded customers' mortgage accounts ...

Failed to handle customer complaints in a fair and consistent manner ...

Failed to properly manage its mortgage services to customers, resulting in breaches of customers' consumer protection rights [etc.] ... [and]

Failed to properly implement the ... Stop the Harm principles.

That is what the Central Bank said about the tracker mortgage issue and the fine it was imposing on AIB. It failed its customers. The Central Bank said that these "failings caused unacceptable harm and loss ... over the course of nearly 18 years" and that AIB's actions had "devastating consequences for its customers". If that was said about another company, there would probably be a clear-out of the directors. Certainly, whoever was left would ask that senior managers would consider their positions at least. None of that happened. There were 57 regulatory breaches. They were fined €119 million but they got a discount of 30%. I do not know anyone who gets a discount like that when they have done so much damage. A number of houses were repossessed and a number of families were destroyed - the litany of errors goes on and on.

Now we are asking that same bank with that record to treat fairly the EBS tied agents. I am not making little of the customers that were affected or any other issues relating to the bank, but that is the backdrop. That is the EBS. Through parliamentary questions, I think it was the Minister's Department that informed those who asked that the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, IAASA, would examine the issues they had. However, IAASA would not do it. It did not refuse to do it, but it did not actively pursue it. When it was pushed, it said that it would deal with it but that it would deal with the complaint from the EBS-AIB behind closed doors.

That is what has the country the way it is. Then the EBS tied agents went to the Central Bank. The Central Bank will not investigate, even though under section 37 of the Building Societies Act 1989, the Central Bank has to ensure the EBS is financially sound, which brings us back to the root of this problem. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, ODCE, has refused to examine instances where banks have refused to disclose, or disclose correctly, their true financial position. It goes back to the definition of "capital losses" used by the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation as well. It is not compatible with that of the EU. Regardless of whether we believe all of what is being said in that, against the backdrop of the activities of AIB it begins to emerge that all of these entities that are supposed to be in charge and have the powers do very little. They pretend, and people go on suffering. When I asked AIB about the EBS, it was reluctant to give any real update, because it is in mediation or the process is ongoing. I consider that response from AIB to be absolutely shambolic. In the light of all of that, I ask the Minister to tell AIB to stop the carry-on with the EBS tied agents and to bring about a resolution of some sort to the matter, in view of what the Central Bank said about AIB. I do not know how it can be trusted. Can the Minister ask AIB to do that?