Mr. Paul Joyce:

It is more than fair as a question and is a particularly important question. I would suggest that consultation has decreased over the years since the global financial crash rather than grown. It is almost as if the world of loan servicing, sale of loans and travelling on of loans is considered to be a fait accompliwhich cannot be disturbed at this stage and that it is in the interests of commerce that this continue.

Speaking of the credit servicing directive, it would be remiss of us not to point out the role the European Central Bank has played in creating a credit servicing and retail credit firm regime. This is happening all over Europe, perhaps to a greater extent in Ireland, but the fallout from the global financial crisis has led to this. What is highly ironic about it is that it was the reckless lending the Central Bank of Ireland itself facilitated prior to 2008 that gave rise to this. Yet we now find that that has not been properly solved after a decade because the measures that were taken were not adequate or radical enough to deal with it. Now, as a result of Covid and cost-of-living issues, we are looking at an increase in debt and we still do not have the infrastructure to properly deal with it.

I think I can say on behalf of FLAC that we do not get the same ear as we once might have got. The Central Bank of Ireland, for example, is conducting a review of its consumer protection code at the moment, and in the review document great emphasis is placed on protecting the consumers' best interests. It is hard to believe that the Central Bank actually thinks that that is what is happening for a great many people.

I return to a very important point made about the information that navigates from the credit institutions selling the loans to the outfits buying them. In many instances it is very cursory. I had the privilege for many years of doing tech support for MABS's money advisers until a few years ago and I certainly used to see cases in which the information provided to the particularly dedicated mortgage arrears advisers about a client's arrears was incomplete. A figure was just asserted and added to regularly, and a lot of it did not stand up to scrutiny. The problem is how you get to challenge that. If you are the defendant borrower and you wish to say, "The arrears figure you have quoted in your affidavit to support your civil bill for possession is incorrect", you would need a forensic accountant to be involved in looking at that. It is a different figure at different times. This is also reflected in the fact that such outfits are not prepared to come in and talk to the committee about what they do. It is hard not to be cynical about it and believe that it is a stitch-up.