Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé thar a bheith sásta labhairt ar an mBille seo. Cé gur mhaith liom bheith ag amharc ar an gcluiche, tá an reachtaíocht seo iontach tábhachtach agus tá ard-mholadh tuillte ag an Teachta Ó Laoghaire agus a oifig as ucht é a thabhairt chun tosaigh anocht.

I commend Deputy Ó Laoghaire and his office on bringing forward this excellent Bill. I extend my thanks to Padraic Kissane, somebody we have heard a lot about in recent days and weeks, as have those who have been following the tracker mortgage issue for many years. He sent an email and drew my attention to class action and the question of why we did not have it here. That was the spark that inspired us to look into this issue and to bring the legislation forward. Having done so, we found out that, lo and behold, the legislation had already been drafted. It was done 12 years ago by the Law Reform Commission in an excellent report on the need for class action.

I have listened to the stories of the many victims and some of them are personal friends of mine, while some are extended family. They have considered taking the banks to court but they have had to deal with the issue of costs, of what happens if the case goes against them and how they can take on a multibillion euro company if it appeals the case all the way to the Supreme Court. They have to ask how much of their lives it will take up and what will happen if it does not work out.

We have all, including the Taoiseach, criticised the banks and spoken of them stealing money from their own customers. The original estimate was some €500 million but it is now approaching €1 billion with the number of victims being added to week in and week out. Last Thursday, Bank of Ireland told us that it robbed 6,000 other customers, including 1,800 of its own staff. There are over 20,000 victims so far and the number is expected to reach 30,000 by the time the investigations are over.

Each of those individuals or families must contact a solicitor to start their case and if things progress they need to pay for a barrister to take their case to court. The mere mention of the word “barrister” will see many people simply give up at that point. That is the reality. Access to the courts is simply beyond the means of many of our citizens. How many times have we been contacted by constituents exasperated and exhausted because their only resort is the courts but they simply cannot afford or ever imagine affording the fees of the courts? I am very proud that legislation I drafted and brought through both Houses of the Oireachtas was signed into law earlier this year. It allows for many tracker mortgage victims to go to the ombudsman to seek redress but many more want their day in court.

What if, for once, in this country the law allowed all the little people to gang together and take on the banks or whatever other institutions had wronged them? What if, for once, the law was on the side of the victims? That is what this Bill proposes to do. It is tempting to say the tracker scandal is rock bottom for Irish banks but I have been around too long to be so naive. There will be another scandal, banking or otherwise, where the ordinary citizen will be abused, stole from, hurt, or otherwise harmed. It will probably take years for the truth to come out and when it does the individual victims will be left on their own having to face the High Court on their own unless we make the changes here in this Bill. The system we have is intimidating. It is designed to put off the ordinary family from accessing the legal system. It is expensive and elitist. This Bill would level the playing field and give the tracker victims or the victims of the next scandal, and the one after, the chance to stand together against the faceless banks or whatever other body with bottomless reserves of cash they have to face.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire has outlined the content of the Bill. He has shown how the current test case system disadvantages the claimant. The main drawback is the costs associated with an individual taking a case. As the Law Reform Commission states, the test case system multiplies costs while the representative case model only provides injunctive and declaratory relief. We are proposing a better, more democratic model which would reduce the cost of litigation, reduce duplication and cost of representation and make better use of court resources, thereby improving access to justice. Put simply, if a group of people with a common grievance against a particular body or company decides to do so, they can approach the Courts Service and, if they qualify, could be considered a multi-party action. As Deputy Ó Laoghaire has outlined, ideally a change to the civil legal aid rules is in order too so that litigants with limited financial means will be able to access this new system. They are then a part of a group taking a case for justice together as a class of people. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, ní neart go cur le chéile.

This Bill is not some sort of kneejerk reaction to the tracker issue. The Law Reform Commission mapped out all these issues and this solution in 2005, in a comprehensive and well-researched report. However, Government after Government let it gather dust. When I recently asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he planned to finally act on this report he told me, "I will continue to bear it in mind for discussion and possible action in the general context of any upcoming reforms in the civil justice area." There is clearly absolutely no Government intention to bring forward this legislation so I am proud that Sinn Féin has done so. I hope all sides can get together and carry this Bill forward, not just to Committee Stage but to passing it into law as soon as possible.

We have condemned the banks and expressed sympathy with the victims of trackers and now is the time for action. We owe it to the victims of the tracker mortgage scandal, and so many other scandals this State has seen and sometimes played a role in, to not only continue to stand up for them but to also show that we are learning lessons and changing. My party is ready to work with all sides to progress this Bill. We accept there may be legitimate concerns and there may also be some scaremongering and circling of the wagons inside and outside this Chamber. However, I have met legal representatives with more than 100 cases before the courts and it is crucially important because the victims of the tracker scandal want their day in court. I have met advocates who have victims who want to have their day in court.

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether we will make them have to take each case individually, and bear that cost, risk and pressure, or do we listen to what the Law Reform Commission said in 2005, when it wrote legislation, on which this Bill is based, to allow for multiple action, or class action, suits to be introduced in the State. The time for words is over and it is now time of action, and I ask the Dáil to pass Second Stage today. I ask Members to encourage, through their parties and groups, that it is expedited through Committee Stage so we can tell the 30,000 tracker mortgage holders that if they wish to go to court they can join another victim, or hundreds or thousands of other victims, and take on the banks, and that we in the Parliament are levelling the playing field for them.

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