Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The way the banks have dealt with this issue is wrong and it is unacceptable to me. The behaviour that caused this issue was wrong and the behaviour in responding to its resolution has failed to reflect the appreciation the banks should have of the difficulty, hurt, anxiety and trauma caused by their actions to their customers and our citizens.

I am unambiguously sending out the message on behalf of Government and through the statement we made earlier that we will make use of powers and of choices available to us to allow, and to force, this issue to be resolved. During the commentary on this matter over recent days, weeks and beyond, I have heard talk of "cohorts", "consumers" and "citizens", but we are talking about people's lives, which have been affected by this not just, as has been acknowledged by all Deputies, in the context of their financial affairs, which would be bad enough, but also in respect of their health and the well-being of their families who were dealing with difficult times in their lives anyhow and which the entire country was going through at that point. All of this was compounded by the behaviour of our banks in respect of tracker mortgages.

The statement I made today, which, of course, the House will evaluate over the coming weeks and months and beyond, is not only to support the Central Bank in its work to ensure its probe into the practices it is investigating can continue and reach a conclusion but also to ensure as this is happening that those customers who deserve to have their money paid back are paid back. What the banks have done today, some of which they have done already, is lay out publicly timelines in respect of repayments, numbers of customers and timings. I wish some of those timings were different. I wish all banks were able to make repayments to their customers, those we represent and serve, with timings that reflected the urgency of this issue, but the banks, with the Central Bank working on this matter, outlined certain times this afternoon. What I will do is hold those banks accountable to those times. They have made commitments on numbers of people and on when this work will be done by, and I have communicated directly to them, particularly to the banks in which the State retains a share, that if certain timeliness are not met and if the Central Bank reports back to me to say that its expectations have not been delivered against, then I will look at options available to me under law, and as a shareholder in a number of them and I will take further action.

I would like to emphasise three points regarding the statement I made earlier today. The first relates to the role of the Central Bank in dealing with this matter. The bank is the independent regulator of our banking sector and it is imperative that its role in this process is understood and that its role in the timing and setting of redress is recognised by the Government and, indeed, by the Oireachtas. What I have done with the framework I described today is say that the Central Bank, which is committed to doing this work, will outline by the middle of December if any further customers or families are affected by this issue. It will then communicate its decision on this matter directly to the banks and to me. It is vital that this happens because we know of all those families who have dealt with, and are dealing with, the worry, upset and huge difficulty of this matter. What needs to be confirmed is whether any further families are at risk in this regard. The Central Bank has outlined how this will be done in terms of work it will do by December and further work that may need to be done by March.

The second point I want to outline is options that will be open to me, and powers that are available to me, that I will use if I need to on foot of the advice I will receive from the Central Bank. I outlined three of them in my statement and I will do so again. First, I will look at ensuring, through legislative means if necessary, that there are further requirements on the banks in terms of statements and reports they make back to Government. Second, there are options potentially open to me as an activist shareholder in a number of banks to deal with this matter in terms of resolutions and the consent that banks require of me in respect of matters within their business. The third issues is bankers' pay and future remuneration. These are all issues, the stance on which I will evaluate in the context of whether this matter is resolved and progress made.

This leads to the third point I would like to emphasise, which is the role of culture and attitude in respect of this issue. Culture for me is not a way of getting around the individual role and the individual consequences that people within banks may face. Culture for me is not a way of second-guessing the potential culpability that the Central Bank may establish regarding institutions and individuals. However, this is about the response we must make to where our banking sector and our banks stand now. How we have got to this point is unacceptable, but what is as of much concern to me is where we now stand in the resolution of it. Some banks have responded in a different way to this matter from others, but what is common to all is the time it has taken to resolve the matter, that the fact this issue has arisen in the first place is unacceptable, and that the banks' customers and the people we represent in this House have suffered in a way that I believe to be unacceptable. I have mandated the Central Bank to come back to me with a general assessment not just of this matter, because this has afforded me an opportunity to look at all the matters relating to tracker mortgages and how issues have or have not been dealt with, but also the broader issues associated with this in respect of how our banks currently conduct themselves. That is why that requirement is there and the Central Bank will report back to me and the Government on this matter in the first half of next year.

I acknowledge Deputy Michael McGrath in tabling the motion, Deputy McGuinness as Chairman of the committee that has been looking into this matter, and all the members of the committee, including Deputy Pearse Doherty, who have raised this issue. They have focused, understandably and correctly, on how people feel who have gone through this experience, the difficulty they have had to deal with, and the huge financial distress at times of difficulty. I understand that and I understand what has happened to people who have been wrongfully treated. What I have outlined today is not just words. I believe words have a role when I as Minister for Finance say I do not accept the behaviour of our banks not only in causing this issue but also in resolving this issue. That is not a standard that is acceptable to me. As a shareholder and as a member of Government, this is something that must change further. What I also have done is to have outlined actions in this regard. These are actions that I can only take when the Central Bank, which is the independent regulatory body and which is charged with overseeing the sector, completes its work on the numbers of customers and the action that needs to be taken. The bank sets the policies in this area, but I am clear on the principle relating to this area. People who have been wrongly and unfairly treated, and there are too many, must be treated in a better way. The statement I have made, and the actions I have outlined today, identify how the Government will, I hope, reflect the views of the House on this matter and will support the Central Bank in the resolution of this matter.

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