Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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311. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding Permanent TSB; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30703/15]

Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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356. To ask the Minister for Finance the assistance or advice that is available to Permanent TSB mortgage holders who were not offered or were prevented from switching to a tracker mortgage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31544/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 311 and 356 together.

On 28 July 2015 following an enforcement investigation by the Central Bank of Ireland, permanent tsb announced details of a comprehensive Mortgage Redress Programme (MRP) to address the position of 1,372 mortgage customer accounts which lost a contractual right to a tracker rate mortgage in circumstances where there was a failure by the Group in the management of the relevant mortgage accounts.  1,152 of the impacted accounts were accounts of permanent tsb.  A further 220 were accounts of Springboard Mortgages Ltd a subsidiary of permanent tsb.

The majority of failures for impacted accounts occurred between 2006 and 2011.  Impacted customer accounts may have suffered serious consequences as a result of the failures including:

- Having to pay higher mortgage repayments than should have been the case;

- Going into arrears where that may not otherwise have occurred;

- Being engaged in legal proceedings that might not otherwise have been necessary;

- In a limited number of cases, customers may have lost ownership of the relevant property linked to the mortgage in situations where they may not have lost these properties if the failures had not occurred.

Both the Chairman and Chief Executive of permanent tsb Group Holdings plc have fully acknowledged that this is a matter of the utmost seriousness.

The Mortgage Redress Programme has a number of objectives:

1. To return the impacted mortgage accounts to the position they would now be in had the failure not occurred;

2. To make a compensation payment to impacted account holders;

3. To make a payment to impacted account holders for use, if required, in securing independent advice on this matter;

4. To provide a comprehensive appeals system for impacted account holders, which would enable them to appeal any aspect of the proposed redress and/or compensation offer made to them in so far as it related to their situation.

At close of business on 12 September, of the 1,352 mortgage accounts included in the Mortgage Redress Programme, payments have been made to customers in respect of 814 accounts 60% of the total.  That number is continuing to grow and the bank will be engaging with customers who have not yet replied to the initial correspondence over the coming weeks to encourage them to do so.

The issue of appeals is very important and with that in mind the bank has put in place a comprehensive appeals process comprising two separate appeal panels; one to deal with cases of loss of ownership or cases where legal action is or was previously undertaken by the bank and a second panel to deal with all other cases.

These panels include representatives from the legal and accountancy professions, and people with strong credentials in consumer advocacy.

The establishment of these panels recognises that it would be neither appropriate nor possible for the bank itself to have the final say on what should constitute, for example, an appropriate level of compensation for the impact which its failure has had on individual customers of the bank.  These panels will be able to examine representations made by impacted customers on any aspect of the redress programme including the amount of the compensation payment offered and whether or not that adequately compensates an impacted account holder in respect of any stress, disruption and hardship the failure may have caused.

The appeals process has also been set up in such a way to ensure that even if customers immediately accept the bank's proposals to redress their account and the bank's proposed compensation, doing so will not restrict their ability in the months ahead to bring an appeal in relation to either one or both of these issues or indeed other issues to the appeal panels.  I believe this has significant benefits for impacted customers and strikes the correct balance between ensuring that they can get redress and compensation immediately without having to accept such redress or compensation in full and final settlement of the matter.

The bank has also made it clear that regardless of whether an impacted account holder uses the appeal process or not, they may choose to bring the matter elsewhere for adjudication including to the Financial Services Ombudsman and / or to the Courts.  In such cases the bank has explicitly stated that it will not invoke any statutory limitation period (that might otherwise apply) for a period of 12 months from the date the account holder acknowledges receipt of the bank's correspondence on this issue.