Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Finance the fees paid to date by each bank and the Central Bank for services related to the tracker mortgage investigation, by service provider and bank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30836/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Tracker Mortgage Examination Framework requires lenders to appoint an external independent party to oversee the conduct of their Examination. However, the Central Bank has advised that it is a matter for individual firms to disclose these and any other costs incurred by them in respect of the Tracker Mortgage Examination.

In respect of the Central Bank, the Bank has advised that in order to supplement its resources it has appointed a panel of experts to provide professional expertise to support its assurance work at critical points in the Examination.

Firms were appointed by way of "call off" contracts under an existing Professional Services Framework Agreement. "Call off" contracts were awarded to: Ernst & Young, Grant Thornton and Oliver Wyman. As the assurance work on the Examination is ongoing and at different stages with lenders, the Bank is not in a position to provide costs at this point. However, the Bank will publish an aggregate figure (due to statutory confidentiality requirements, the Central Bank can, generally speaking, only disclose information in relation supervisory work in summary or aggregate form so that individual firms cannot be identified) for its third party professional services costs at the conclusion of the Tracker Examination. In addition, as signalled by Governor Philip Lane at the meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach on 4 April 2017, these costs will be charged back to the firms.