Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

How AIB was able to split mortgages and Permanent TSB was not able to do them is still a mystery to me. We are not dealing with a small number of people. Some 113,688 mortgages are in the hands of vultures. Some 45,000 of those are with variable rates. Another 37,000 of them are on tracker rates and others are fixed rates.

Mr. Burgess gave a good example. We ran our own calculations, because loads of people contact us. We talk about the cost-of-living crisis. We know what it is like to put petrol or diesel in your car, or to have extra bills for food, or, God forbid, electricity or gas. However, there is actually nothing that compares to the increase in your annual mortgage rate when it is in the hands of the vultures. These individuals are paying €5,000 more per year now than they were in June of last year. That is going to increase again next March. That is probably the single biggest increase across any of the items that a household would face. If you are still with Permanent TSB, you will be paying 3.5%. With Pepper, it is 6.9% and we know that will go up again in the second week of March to 7.5%. Some people have contacted me who are already on 7.5% and it will go to 8%.

The Taoiseach said in December 2018 that mortgage holders would be "no worse off" if their mortgages were sold to vulture funds. He said they would continue to have the exact same consumer protections, as they would if their loan had still been owned by banks. In April 2019, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, told us he would be happy for his mortgage to be sold to a vulture fund and he said the "evidence shows that protections are in place and that citizens are treated equally". Do any of the witnesses agree with those statements?