Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for attending today. In fairness, their responses have been very in-depth and thorough in respect of the tracker mortgage scandal. I must commend the office on that, because it is what it is about. Deputy Devlin mentioned the office's website. The publication of the decisions of those 1,000+ cases shows that the office is working and is going in the right direction. It is working on behalf of people. The publication of decisions is also a sign of confidence within the office. These meetings are exceptionally important. We need to get more of this into the public domain in order that people become aware of the work that is done by the office but also can trust the office.

I will move on because the witnesses have covered the tracker mortgage issue exceptionally well. As for the current situation in Ireland, some of the banks are withdrawing from the market. Would it be a cause for concern for the office were we to lose a few of our banks?

A few people have raised the issue of personal contract plan, PCP, car financing with me. Some have queried whether it could be dodgy. I ask the witnesses to outline their concerns on the issue.

Much of the younger generation, because of bad publicity in the press on banks and what has happened over the years, are moving towards cryptocurrencies and apps such as Revolut and N26. I ask the witnesses to comment on that issue.

Another issue that was raised at a recent committee meeting concerns asylum seekers who cannot open a bank account because they do not have identification, proof of address or a personal public service number, PPSN, and so on. Do the witnesses have concerns or opinions on that issue to enable us to get a broader picture? The issues discussed at these committee meetings tend to overlap.

I thank the witnesses for their time.