Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know Mr. Burgess wants to come in but I will ask my final question. Perhaps he can come in on that because others want to come in as well. Final, final question. I have raised this with some of the financial institutions, the Central Bank and the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. In addition, I have written recently again to the Central Bank. I do not think it is something that can be dropped.

More than 40,000 people had their loans impacted as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal and overcharging by banks. That caused much more than financial pain, as we have heard down through the years. A number of those individuals had their loans sold on to vulture funds before they were compensated and restored. I will go into this in greater detail at some other time.

The principle of restoration is one of the most powerful tools the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, FSPO, has. In fairness to the Central Bank, when it came to the table it said the banks had to put those individuals back to the position they were in. If we are genuinely to believe in the principle of restoration, then people whose loans are now in the hands of vulture funds, and who are paying more than 7%, should be back with the financial institutions those loans originated from. I am talking about people whose loans were sold on, either before or during the process, before the bank paid them back the money they overcharged them in the first place. Mr. Kissane was a leader in all of this and represented many of the families, which is not to take away from what Mr. Hall and Mr. Burgess did. Mr. Kissane mentioned the tracker issue, which is why I ask him to address this, but I am willing to hear from others on that issue.