Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everyone to the committee. Pepper announced in the last fortnight that it will increase its interest rates again. The increase of 1% for the majority of its customers will bring its average rate up to 6.2%. That is before another increase in the ECB rate in a fortnight. As reported at the time, Pepper's stated "Pepper does not receive any commercial benefit from the increase in interest rates, which are being directly passed on.". Is it not the case that is because Pepper is just servicing this. The reality is that it is Pepper, Lone Star and those other organisations that are benefiting from this. Mr. Kissane mentioned the cost of credit and the source of funds. These are not European entities in the main. They have a global presence. They are based in the US and they raise money in the international markets in many different ways. While we have banks here that have been able to absorb variable interest rate hikes in the main, does Mr. Kissane take the view that the owners of these loans, rather than the servicers of the loans, are actually creaming it by charging these extortionate interest rates?