Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad Mr. Kincaid has seen that. I would probably argue, he might correct this, that that may have been on the fringes. I might be wrong; I will let Mr. Kincaid explain that. When Mr. Kincaid talks about their strategy of engagement, the people listening in will be laughing at that. People cannot engage with these funds. They are not engaging and offering alternative arrangements. The code of conduct on mortgage arrears means nothing for those more than 100,000 families. Next week they will get another dunt when that letter arrives saying that their interest rates are to go up again immediately. There is a serious issue here. I know Mr. Kincaid mentioned what the vulture funds have done historically because they bought these at a significant discount. However, there has been a game changer since July. The cost of servicing these mortgages has increased by multiples of thousands of euro and will continue to increase over this year.

I will give another example of the cohort. I have written to the Governor on this. One individual - fair play to him - decided to fight Permanent TSB, a State-owned bank.

The bank told him that he was wrong. He appealed it and the bank told him that he was wrong. He took his case to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. He won the case in the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman and the bank had to acknowledge there were 200 other individuals who fall into a similar category.

During that process, because he was wronged in terms of the tracker mortgage interest rate that was being applied to his account, because he was a victim, he had to have an arrangement with the bank which saw him pay more than he would if he was on his original tracker mortgage. If he was not wronged by the bank, he would have been better off than under the arrangement. Because he was in an arrangement - not in arrears but in an arrangement - with that bank, his loan was sold off to a vulture fund. He now will be paying interest at a rate of over 7% next week when the Central Bank makes its decision. He is out thousands of euro because his loan is with a vulture fund. It should still be with Permanent TSB, if Permanent TSB did not wrong him under the tracker mortgage scandal. The premise here, in terms of natural justice according to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, is people should be restored to the position in which they were before the wrongdoing happened. These individuals - it is not only one - or cohort of individuals should never have had their loans sold by Permanent TSB to vulture funds, should not now be paying interest at a rate of 7%, but instead should be with Permanent TSB and should be paying a rate which is roughly 3% less than what they will which is the equivalent of thousands of euro per year. What, if anything, will the Central Bank do in relation to this cohort of individuals who are now feeling a secondary effect from the tracker mortgage scandal?