John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What the committee was trying to do was bring in the vulture funds to get some sort of structure around the mortgages they have - the detail of that. They refused to come in and they continue to refuse to come in. Pepper has indicated that it may meet the committee. That is for another day. Up to now, they have said "No" and there is no compellability on the part of the committee so we cannot force them to come before us. I find that pretty hard to take when they are dealing with so many citizens of this State in terms of their mortgages. I have heard Mr. Byrne's story and Ms Irwin's story and I am sure they are representative of thousands of others. Someone has to try to get to the core of this and get the information from the vulture funds. They have been named here today. It is normal practice that if you are named here, you have the right to come before us. The vulture funds have that standing invitation from us to come before us. We continue to engage with the Minister for Finance and the Government on the issue, but the vulture funds should be compelled through some form of legislation to come before a committee like this one and answer the questions Mr. Byrne, Ms Irwin and many others are asking. We have a job to do in respect of that but it is very difficult to fight a case for Mr. Byrne, Ms Irwin and all the others with one hand, and possibly two hands, tied behind our backs. The vulture funds are free to take whatever action they want.