Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 12, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: "(2) The cost of amending any inaccurate or incomplete information detected in the Register shall be borne by the relevant financial institution and not the individual about whom the information concerns.".

This amendment is to ensure that the cost of amending any or incomplete information detected in the register shall be borne by the relevant financial institution and not the individual whom the information concerns.

I note that in section 26 the Central Bank has the power, with the consent of the Minister, to make regulations prescribing fees for access to certain information. It does not make reference to the correction of the register where errors occur. We are aware, for example, that when Ulster Bank had technical difficulties last year it may have resulted in certain cases where the formal credit register, which will now be set up on a statutory basis, contained errors. What I am trying to get at here is, where an individual seeks access to his or her credit history - I note the Minister has a subsequent amendment proposing that he or she will be allowed to do so free of charge, essentially, once every year - and identifies any errors in the record which are not of his or her making, if any costs arise in connection with the correction of that record, the costs would not be borne by the individual.

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