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

It is. It just emphasises for me the dangers of some of these funds relevant to the types of activities it has been suggested they would be engaged in, for example, forestry and housing. I can see there is a gap in the regulation that needs to be addressed. Those funds are distinctly different, in a way, from what we would describe here as vulture funds. The problem I see with the vulture funds is that more and more people are going to be trapped by them. They refuse to appear before this committee or make themselves available to us. They refuse to be accountable and transparent. It falls to the Central Bank, therefore, to ensure it is vigilant in how their front-of-house operators behave and how the funds themselves are informed by that front-of-house operation so that the unfortunate person who ends up with the vulture fund is not pestered to the point that it basically ruins his or her life.

What is the Central Bank's engagement with those funds? Does it have regular engagement? Are they aware of the concerns we express? Are they aware that those who make the law here are particularly annoyed that they continue to snub the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, the only committee, from a financial perspective, that represents the people. We have questions we want to ask of these funds? Do they give a sense that they are beyond or above us? Does the Central Bank have sufficient engagement? Why do they not appear before this committee whose members deal with people who are in trouble within this country? Does that conversation ever happen?