Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that. Let me be clear that I discussed this with the Central Bank in my recent meeting with it. These individuals, because they have now been identified as being in scope as part of the tracker mortgage examination, have eventually been remediated. However, the point is that, at a point in time, before they were identified and before they had the money restored to them following the overcharging that was taking place and the compensation, they were sold on to a vulture. At that time, some could have argued that there was no difference but there is clearly a difference today. They have been put at a disadvantage because they were overcharged by the same bank. If they were not, and if they were identified as in scope at the time, they would not have been sold on. The tracker mortgage examination is clear that lenders are not allowed to sell on a mortgage to a third party until they have dealt with the issues surrounding that. Some of these were in a better position and they would not be in arrears if they were not being overcharged in the first place. That is why it is important there is a proper look-back in this regard.

There is a principle here. These banks did wrong, and that is why they have been levied with the highest fines ever issued on financial institutions in the history of the State. They did doubly wrong in that while they were overcharging these customers, they sold the loans on to a vulture fund. They have to do the right thing now. They have to offer to take those loans back onto their books, deal with them appropriately and charge the necessary tracker interest rates.

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