Mr. Brendan Burgess:

My solution is if a mortgage is sold, it should not matter whether it is in arrears. If borrowers are offered the same rates as the originating institution are currently offering, that would not matter.

I am highly critical of the Central Bank's role in this. It has forced the sale of mortgages when they should not have been sold and has taken no action to put any sort of control or limit on mortgage rates. It discouraged the Oireachtas and everybody else from doing that. Last week, or the week before, when the Governor appeared before the committee, he more or less said to please pass on the rates.

For a little balance, however, Irish consumers are much better off as a result of the work of the Central Bank. Very few people affected by the tracker mortgage issue would have got restitution without the Central Bank. It pushed its powers to the limit on that and, in some cases, went a little beyond its limit. The mortgage measures have been very good. The Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, again, has helped many people. There are lots of problems with it but I believe in credit where it is due. I am extremely critical of the Central Bank but, overall, it has done a good job in a lot of areas. I am disappointed that it is just not copping on.

As Mr. Kissane pointed out, it took the Central Bank five or six years to get going on trackers, but it then did a great job. We cannot wait five or six years for it to get going on this issue and then do a great job. We want it to do a great job now.