John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 42 and 44 call for reports within six months, that is what we are talking about. Having listened to the debate at the finance committee, I think it is reasonable to ask in relation to the banks that these amendments be treated in the same way and that the reports and information be made available to this House. What annoys people the most about the banks now is that they are now back on their feet, making an obscene level of profit. As parliamentarians, we have to ask ourselves if this is the type of banking system we want in this country, a banking system that will ignore the pain and suffering of the citizens we represent in the interests of their profitability and that only.

Looking at what is happening in the banks now, they are taking people to court for repossession. People do not even know which part of the bank they are dealing with. AIB and the other banks now have numerous entities with banking licences within their organisations. A customer may have taken out their loan from AIB, but they may be taken to court by AIB, PLC which is an entity in itself. People cannot defend themselves against them. The banks are mounting massive legal battles with families and individuals who have been pushed from pillar to post and have no money left in their family finances and they are fighting for their homes and we are letting the banks away with it.

Ulster Bank, for example, has sold loans to vulture funds knowing full well that the loan they have sold depends on its income on a family home. They are dividing up the loans and sending the customers to the courts. Vulture funds, represented by Capita, are treating people in the most despicable manner. It is incredible what that regulated authority is getting away with. The finance committee, having requested the vulture funds to come before us, received its first response today saying thanks for asking, but no thanks. If they have access to the Minister's Department, and we have all the dates and times that those funds met the Minister, I believe the Minister should tell them that there will be no further meetings, accommodation or consideration of any position that relates to them until such time as they sit before the finance committee and answer its questions on behalf of citizens, who are their customers, who we represent. It is appalling for Capita to sit back and treat this as though they are untouchable. This House has to make some statement, whether by the Minister providing the reports that we are asking for or some other means of legislation, that will put manners on the banks, the vulture funds and Capita and the service providers that represent them. We are allowing them to crush the people who are left fighting for their family homes. We are allowing the banks to walk all over them while at the same time we are allowing the same banks to carry on making the obscene profits that they have been making. At the same time as this is happening, the public banking system in Germany is telling us what we should be doing here. We must consider the balance between the citizen and their rights, a public banking system and the type of greedy vultures who we now have in the general banking system in Ireland and in the vulture funds. They are getting away scot free. All these amendments are asking for is a report within six months and that is reasonable, particularly after the arguments that I have heard at meetings of the finance committee. It is not acceptable that we would ignore what is going on.

For anyone to be making billions of euro of profits off the backs of people they currently have in court is not acceptable.

While we were discussing the tracker mortgage issue, families were in court dealing with attempts to have their properties repossessed. One of those cases was brought by KBC although it said it had none. It said it was not doing it but it was and on the same day we were sitting. Alongside these reports, we need to consider telling the banks that no further action can be taken through the courts against the SME sector or home owners until such time as investigations are carried out into the way they are making their money. The SME sector is linked to all of this. Let us be honest about it. Some of them were encouraged by the banks to move away from their core business and now everything is affected, including family homes and businesses. If they were separated out and structured properly, they would survive. For example, the global restructuring group, GRG, in Ulster Bank is a huge issue which has not been resolved. As we discuss this and await reports, which we want, all of these people continue at speed to take families and small business to court and to ruin local communities further.

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