Mr. David Hall:

I am aware of that. I have been working in this area for the past five years and I have met face to face with every lender in this State, often in coffee shops because I was not allowed into the banks. Morality does not come into it. This is a production line. The banks have moved on. The time to hit them with the moral argument was in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. They have moved on in terms of staff, ethos and so on. I am not agreeing with that. What I am saying is that the current situation is horrific. Dealing with the banks and getting them to show compassion is like walking through a swamp in a pair of wellies. Under the system currently operating within the banks, Johnny can be contacted by phone today by Mary and by John tomorrow. The code of conduct on mortgage arrears introduced in July 2013 was evaporated in order to allow bank staff to ring people any number of times and for site visits to be carried out by what are known as "field officers", many of whom think they are FBI agents. These officers are knocking on people's doors saying, "Hello, you owe us €200,000. How are you fixed?"

The entire consumer protection component has been - I say this respectfully - abandoned by the entire establishment, including the Central Bank, which is the greatest joke in terms of consumer protection in the history of this State. Consumer protection should never be dealt with within the walls of the Central Bank. Respectfully, I believe this committee has an opportunity to change all that. There needs to be a legislative basis for consumer protection such that every bank and lender in this State, and those sitting in armchairs in America, understands that they cannot throw people out of a house here if they are being reasonable and can contribute towards their mortgage. That is where we need to move to in a fast, industrial-scale way.