Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Míle buíochas leis na finnéithe as teacht anseo inniu. Tá fáilte rompu. A question was asked about who regulates the regulator. My instinct is that it is meant to be our job to regulate the regulator. I do not believe that we, as Deputies, have done that job properly. The most frustrating thing about this is that none of it has happened by accident. This is all part of a political strategy. There was a strategy on the part of the Fine Gael Government in the past to protect the pillar banks by making sure they were resilient and could function properly. That is one of the reasons we have such little competition in this country. Competition would have challenged the pillar banks' positions within the market. They currently occupy a position of oligopoly. They exploit this in that they dictate most of the prices, most of the conditions of engagement and most of the locations of business. They have massive supplier power within the market.

The vulture funds were invited into this country by the Government to which I refer. I remember speaking to Michael Noonan at the time. His attitude was that ecosystems need vultures. He was very clear about that. That Government at the time railed against the idea that individual families could potentially buy the debts for the same discount prices at which the vulture funds were buying them. People who had invested their livelihoods in farms, businesses or their own homes were explicitly prevented by the Government from purchasing those loans at the same discount levels that the banks had achieved. At the last count, the vulture funds visited the Department of Finance at least 150 times. The number of times they have come before this committee in that period is zero. That shows the approach of the vulture funds. One of the key problems is that their particular banking or credit model is not open to the retail market. They do not have a long-term view over their development. They are not exposed to the natural winds that control the other banks and their behaviours. The State, therefore, must jump in and control those behaviours. One of the big problems is that people cannot switch from these vulture funds. They are basically prisoners of these funds when it comes to their mortgages. As a result, they are paying, as stated earlier, about €5,000 extra a year. That is pure gouging. It is exploitation. It is an abuse by these funds of their position. They are allowed to continue to abuse it.

I have a couple of questions. This system was built by one of the partners in the current Government. It was an explicit strategy of that party. In light of Mr. Burgess's desire for legislation to force continuity of the terms and conditions, has he had any conversations with the Government in that regard? Are there any willing ears among the members of the Government when it comes to legislation of that sort?