Written answers

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Department of Justice and Equality

Banking Sector Investigations

Photo of Séamus HealySéamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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214. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will instruct An Garda Síochána to investigate alleged systemic fraud and to question all current and former chief executives of the 15 banks (details supplied); if no consideration of possible damage to the sale value of State-owned banks will deter the Government from insisting on a thorough criminal investigation of this matter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20865/17]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the investigation of criminal allegations is matter for An Garda Síochána and I do not have a direct role in this regard. I am advised that all criminal allegations which are brought to Garda attention are thoroughly investigated and it is not open to me, as Minister, to give directions or to intervene in relation to particular cases. The Deputy will also appreciative that a decision to bring a prosecution in any particular case is matter for independent determination by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

In relation to the Banking Sector specifically, the Deputy will appreciate that my Department does not have a regulatory role and, likewise, the consideration of the future sale value of particular banks is not an issue which comes within my remit.

However, I am advised by my colleague, the Minister for Finance, that the Central Bank has a wide range of supervisory and enforcement powers available to it, including the power to impose administrative sanctions, and it is independent in the exercise of its functions in this area. The Bank has advised that it will take appropriate supervisory action, including enforcement action against lenders and persons concerned in the management of those lenders where relevant, to ensure that fair outcomes are achieved for consumers where applicable regulatory standards are not met.

The Deputy might also be aware that in the area of tracker mortgages, the Central Bank recently issued a reprimand and imposed a fine of €4.5m on Springboard Mortgages Limited and it has indicated that two other tracker mortgage-related enforcement investigations are currently ongoing into Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank Ireland. The Central Bank also has statutory reporting obligations to An Garda Síochána, and other agencies, where it suspects a criminal offence may have been committed by a supervised entity. When it appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Taoiseach on 4 April 2017 in relation to the systems wide Tracker Mortgage Examination, the Central Bank informed the Committee that it had opened dialogue with An Garda Síochána to discuss the tracker issue. The Central Bank takes these obligations very seriously and complies with them on an on-going basis as appropriate. The Central Bank has indicated that, as its investigations proceed, it will keep matters under constant review and that, guided by the evidence, it will make reports to other statutory bodies as necessary.

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