Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While the Minister's response may sound great, the reality is that the credit servicing firms are only regulated or authorised by the Central Bank because they were operating in Ireland before the relevant legislation was enacted. Not one of these firms has been authorised by the Central Bank under the new standards. This means that not only are the vulture funds not regulated, but none of the credit servicing firms has been regulated under the new standards or received approval from the Central Bank under these standards. Some 18 months after the enactment of the legislation, the reason these firms are defined as being regulated is that the so-called passporting section of the Act deemed them all to be regulated until such time as they met the new standards.

The Minister sounded like Pontius Pilate as he washed his hands of this issue. Tens of thousands of home owners' loans have been sold to vulture funds. The Minister's statement that he does not have a commercial relationship with the banks and that the relationship framework precludes him from having such a relationship is not true.

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