Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In 2015, the Central Bank began its formal tracker mortgage examination. Problems had been identified as far back as 2010 by the bank and for years, the Central Bank and the Financial Services Ombudsman failed to grasp the importance of the issue. This left it up to individuals and families to fight for their rights. The State arrived very late to this issue and the Government even later. Permanent TSB for years dragged these cases all the way to the Supreme Court before dropping its challenge. Now, more than two years later, there are still thousands waiting to get their own money back. The banks and, I am sure, the Government will want this issue gone, but it is far from finished. The banks are still at it. We know it is going to cost the banks up to €1 billion. Up to 100 family homes have been stolen from working families by these very same banks, including State-owned banks. More than 33,000 accounts, individuals and families, have been affected by this, with more to come as the banks play silly buggers with the numbers every week.

We are asked to believe three things. First, as tracker mortgages became cheaper for consumers, 11 lenders in the State all suffered a systems error or a lack of communication. Second, the banks just happened to be benefitted by hundreds of millions of euro while their customers lost out. Third, these errors just happened to occur at a time when it was beneficial for the banks. There was no design, no intent, just a set of three handy coincidences, which all happened to benefit the banks. I do not buy it, yet nobody has been held responsible. They come before the committee and they write letter after letter to their customers, apologising, while at the same time taking no responsibility.

Where is the accountability? Why does the State refuse to hold white-collar criminals to account? Lives have been destroyed. Families have been broken up. People have suffered very seriously, including mental health issues and suicidal tendencies. Again, the banks continue to behave in a thuggish manner.

Last night, as I was leaving here, I got a call from an individual who was livid at what he heard the bankers tell the finance committee. He told me he was one of the individuals who lost their homes as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal perpetrated by a State-owned bank. He told me that despite what the bankers were telling the committee, the bank is fighting him tooth and nail in order that he does not get his proper compensation and redress. He told me he is left with no option but to take this issue to the court and he feels let down and betrayed again and again by the agencies that should be there to protect him. This is the equivalent of the State hounding its own victims.

What is the Government going to do to hold individual bankers to account for the crimes they have committed? What will the Government do to ensure this will never happen to an Irish citizen again? What legislation will the Government introduce to make sure these individuals will shake if they think of again taking money off Irish citizens in the way they have done? More than €1 billion has been stolen and not one individual has been held to account.

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