Ms Julie Sadlier:

I wish to dispel a couple of myths. Engagement presents a bigger problem at bank level than at client level. When we take up the issue of engagement on behalf of clients, we have difficulty in getting through to banks. One can imagine what the position for ordinary people is in trying to contact them. The myth relating to moral hazard is completely overstated; we just do not see it. We do not come across people who can pay but who do not want to do so. The treatment of people on a case by case basis is another myth. The banks have moved completely away from providing relationship-based services to using call centres and encouraging staff to use Christian names only. When one contacts such centres, one can never speak to the same person twice. The banks also have extremely draconian ways of defining people as being non-co-operative. I can show the committee what they do to people. It is really unfair.