Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Horkan's proposal that there be a debate in this House on tracker mortgages. We need to expand that debate.Of the 13,000 people affected, 3,300 have been repaid to date, while a further 7,000 plus need to be repaid post-haste. We need to look not only at tracker mortgages but also at the wider impacted on group. We need to look at the mortgage interest rates being charged vis-à-visthose being charged elsewhere in Europe and whether we need to update the regulation of banks. There is a sense ofdéjà vu. The public is outraged. The issue has touched a raw nerve because in 2008 when the public was putting money into the same banks to rescue them, they were coercing people to go off tracker mortgages. In effect, they were expecting them to go out the back door and not to be able to come in the front door once the fixed rate had run its course. As a House, we need to make a firm statement. We should have statements on the issue with a view to looking not only at resolving the tracker mortgage issue but also the wider matter of regulation of banks in Ireland. The banks have gone native again and we cannot allow that to happen. This is something about which everyone feels strongly. We must have a functioning banking system, but we must also have a system that is fair to the consumer.