Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Banking Sector in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed)

4:00 pm

Mr. Padraic Kissane:

Yes. The brief the banks have been given is that once a bank has identified an affected account holder, it is supposed to restore that account to a tracker rate immediately. I presume the banks' reply will be that the system makes it difficult to put it in place collectively. I do not know if they can be done in batches or individually. The committee needs to understand that I was from the outside coming in. I have not been given any of this information. It was what I could glean from the documentation of the people coming in and putting it together. I attempted to engage one bank and I said that if it wanted to sort the matter out correctly then it should bring me in. It should put three people one side of a desk and we could sort it out in six months. I could tell the bank what mortgage accounts should go back onto tracker rates. Without a shadow of a doubt, however, there is still a level of resistance to that position. I am still getting letters. I have a letter from today, and I am still wrong.