Mr. Padraic Kissane:

I am not sure. I do not have the resources to get that level of insight, although I probably will eventually. One issue of concern is the restoration of accounts that moved banks, and should be put back to the tracker rate. That is posing an enormous difficulty. There is the absolutely ludicrous situation that if one wants an account to be restored to the bank as a result of an appeal, it can be restored it to the bank. The bank will have calculated a rough estimate of what the overpaid interest is. However, to get that loan restored, the appeal must be accepted. That disallows any further appeal from being brought, even to the courts. It is astonishing.

I can certainly make the members aware of some of the harder questions that should be asked. It is not easy to come in here and raise these the issues. I would rather it never happened. However, if the banks think I am going away, I can tell them I am not. I am absolutely committed to my clients. I said I would go shoulder to shoulder with them all the way. Some have been my clients since 2012. I have not enriched myself from this. People may wonder how much I am making from this. Many of my clients do not have any money, so I do not take any payment from them. The banks should pay me for everything that I have done. The clients should not pay me one cent. It was agreed that my conditions to do with engagement would be honoured by AIB but it has rowed back on that as well. I sent in a bill for one of the successful appeals, and was then challenged on my hourly rate. It said it was too high. It never ends.

I do not really care what it does to me, but I get really upset and angered when I see the children who are affected. For example, Kyle's sister, who had to go straight into fifth year and leave all her pals in fourth year, because the parents knew that they were not going to be able to afford the trips, and it would be more embarrassing for the girl. That is one example but there are thousands of these. At some stage, the CEOs, who are mostly family men themselves, are going to have to step back, put their hands up and perform an about turn. Hopefully, today's meeting will go towards it.

I want to thank the committee on behalf of the thousands of customers that are affected. Everything that can be done needs to be done for the customers. Thankfully, today we did not talk about accounts. That is all the banks talk about. There are people behind every one of those accounts. What has been done to them is truly appalling, especially with the most sacrosanct aspect of borrowing, family home ownership.