Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael)
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We only started on that when the tracker mortgage issue came to light in 2015, but the tracker mortgage scandal had been going on for years before that. I am not a regulator but we had ordinary people coming to us. I acknowledge the work the Central Bank has done but I have been a Member of these Houses since 2007. I was here on the night the bank guarantee was brought in. We dealt with people on the ground. We cannot afford to forget the harm it caused. I have to ask the hard question. If the tracker mortgage scandal was happening for years prior to 2015 and if the Central Bank was charged with regulating the banks, why did it not pick up on the tracker scandal earlier? It put many people under untold pressure. These were ordinary consumers and customers. The banks knew it was going on, and from what I can the see, the regulator, which is the Central Bank, did not. It is legitimate to ask the question why not.

I acknowledge the phenomenal work that was done but the horse had bolted at that stage. If the Central Bank is doing ongoing regulation, why was the tracker mortgage scandal not picked up in the early years when it had started? I will not go into the precise years. Perhaps Ms Rowland could clarify this for me. When she looks back on the investigations, what was the earliest year for which people were compensated for their tracker mortgages? What year did it go back to?