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

I thank the Minister for his reply. The numbers which emerged during the course of the hearing to which I referred are much higher because the figure of 8,200 excludes customers from Permanent TSB and an older Bank of Ireland issue going back to 2011. The Governor acknowledged that 15,000 mortgage customers could be affected.

I would like to know how the same mistake was made by AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank. We know what happened in some banks, but we do not know about other lenders. This was systemic and widespread across all of the main lenders in the State. Why, when these mistakes happen, do they always happen in a manner that is adverse to the customer?

Serious questions need to be asked and answered because this is a scandal. Mortgage customers have been treated disgracefully, and the Central Bank will have to fully exercise its statutory power in order to ensure that this issue is dealt with comprehensively. Fundamentally, we need to know how this happened, why it happened and who knew about it because the issue was widespread, which the Governor accepted.

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