Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have had the same experience as Deputy Doherty. All of us have had the same experience whereby what we call the customer, who is the borrower, originally borrowed from one of the pillar banks but had their loan transferred or sold off, sometimes in a bundle, to a vulture fund. Incidentally, this was against that person's wishes and, in most cases, he or she objected. In most cases where I have dealt with that kind of situation in the past, it related to insurance companies, which sold on somebody's cover to another insurance company to the objection of the person paying the bill. The customer again loses out.

I am a little concerned that the vulture funds have quickly slipped ahead of us, both public representatives and customers, to the detriment of the rights of customers. The information the Central Bank gave to the House and the committee was that those funds were, rightly so, coming under the regulation of the Central Bank. That was said in good faith and I accept that. However, the vulture funds have found a way to get around that. That is what worries me. I have dealt with individual cases, as has everybody in the room, whereby customers ask, "Why should this have happened?" They did not ask to be treated in this fashion. They were dealing with their original lender and their loans were transferred elsewhere. I have sat around a table with several of these people, who say that all has changed now. It is an ongoing situation. It has not gone away but is in full swing at present. The usual excuse is that the loan is no longer sustainable and the borrower is unable to service it, despite the fact that the customer might have made several efforts to negotiate with the bank to no avail. All the bank ever said was that the loan was not sustainable and it was not going to do that. It is very worrying from the point of view of who calls the shots.

Who is the boss? Who is the leading authority? As public representatives, we are concerned. We know the witnesses are concerned. I have no doubt that somebody stole a march on some of the borrowers, not with the approval of but regardless of the role that the Central Bank has to play. I would like to see a follow up on that and some further clarification. These are not isolated incidents. They are going through the system inexorably at the moment, regardless of what we think or say.