Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Black noted that 23 people lost properties that were their primary dwellings. I have been talking to people about tracker mortgage issues since before I became a Minister of State. We have all dealt with people facing these types of difficulties. There is a huge difference between, on the one hand, somebody who was overcharged but who was capable of making the overcharged payment without it affecting him or her in a significant material way and, on the other hand, people who ended up losing their homes as a result of being overcharged. My view is that the people who were seriously injured by the actions of the banks should be compensated by a country mile more than those who were not severely impacted.

The Government does not regulate the banks; the Central Bank does so on behalf of the State. Several Senators asked whether the overcharging was systematic. We know that 10% of accounts were affected. If it was a systematic practice, one would expect the number of accounts affected to be much higher. I do not know how we got to the point that a nice, even 10% of customers were affected, but we are looking into that.

Senator Conway-Walsh raised a point that is very difficult to answer when she referred to the customers who went into contracts with their banks after the latter had failed to offer them a tracker rate on their mortgages. That is the nub of the matter under discussion. Having not been offered trackers, if they chose to enter contracts on a variable or fixed rate, should they then be entitled to compensation?I do not know the answer to that.