Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The prevailing rate has been a serious bone of contention for many individuals. My colleagues on the finance committee and I have quizzed all of the financial institutions about the prevailing rate, where they accepted that a customer should be on that rate, but it was 3.5%. What they came up with was ridiculous and we queried it with the Central Bank. When officials of the Central Bank appeared before the committee in recent weeks, I put the issue to them. They told us "it is clear that the prevailing rate issue has been dealt with in some of the entities." That was the first time we had received information that that was the case in AIB. I welcome being able to give that information. We will tease out the matter with AIB when its representatives come before the committee soon. However, the Central Bank has stated it is still in discussions with others. There are people who do not know if their issue with the prevailing rate with Permanent TSB, Bank of Ireland or any other bank has been closed, whether they should go to the Financial Services Ombudsman or if the Central Bank is still arguing on their behalf. Will greater transparency be brought to this issue in order that customers will know where they stand?

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