Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Michael McGrath on tabling this motion. We have not one damned thing solved today. Banks have come out apologising. One bank has identified 4,300 overcharged customers, another bank 3,000. The one with 4,300 has said it can solve the matter before Christmas. Another bank has said it will endeavour to find solutions for 1,000 customers before Christmas and that by June 2018 it expects to have this sorted. Now we see who is calling the tune. We see that the banks are doing it the way they like it and that they will give payments of €50,000 to people who have completely lost their houses. Who will be the arbitrator in all this?

I believe emergency legislation needs to be introduced. A retired High Court judge should be appointed. If the banks are to decide, that will not solve the matter and will not put things right, including the mental torture these people have gone through. Not alone that, but we also have a major problem when we hear this evening that there are 1,800 bank staff who are also on these trackers who could not open their mouths because they were afraid of losing their jobs. That must be sorted as well. There are also 300,000 more people on variable rates around this country paying exorbitant interest on their mortgages and the banks are still getting away with this. They seem to be calling all the shots and they are not accountable. I firmly believe that if something were going this wrong in any other walk of life, special investigation units would have been called into the sector, and this should have been done already in this case. We need to bring in legislation rapidly to make sure these people are accountable.

I wish to raise one other matter I have mentioned a few times previously. A person rang me this evening to tell me that a receiver has moved in on a debt of €30,000 and will basically put them out of their land. These people would be able to pay if the debt were sold on at the rate it was sold on to some of these vultures that are now moving in on debts. I ask the Minister to do one other thing. People need a new beginning. We need to put a fund together-----

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