Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This morning Ulster Bank was fined almost €38 million for its role in the tracker mortgage scandal, a scandal that affected nearly 6,000 customers of Ulster Bank that we know of. Part of the Central Bank's finding was that Ulster Bank devised and implemented a deliberate strategy not to provide certain customers with their correct tracker mortgage entitlement. That means it devised and implemented a strategy to overcharge customers thousands of euro to which the bank was legally not entitled. In layman's terms, it was theft. It affected thousands of people and 29 people lost their family homes as a result. For those, today's fine is too little, too late.

In 2015, the Central Bank Governor wrote to the then Fine Gael finance Minister, Michael Noonan, pointing out a loophole in the relevant legislation. In the letter he said it effectively allowed individuals to act without responsibility for their actions. It is six years since the Central Bank told the Government it needed to hold individuals and bankers to account because of this loophole. When is the legislation going to be published?

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