Fianna Fáil deputy for Rosommon-Galway, Eugene Murphy says the Government needs to make the banks admit that the tracker mortgage scandal is akin to fraud and to hold those implicit to account.
Deputy Murphy said when the banks were bailed out by the Irish taxpayer the banks had a civic duty to the country to be honest in all aspects of their business dealings.
“Now we have another scandal that may just be the most sickening one yet, where the metal stress on families and individuals who have been deceived and maybe defrauded may never be able to be counted or compensated for,” Deputy Murphy said.
“There are many bigger questions that the Government have to answer here. After the banks destroyed our country and we bailed them out we were promised that the regulators were keeping a closer eye on how the banks were treating our citizens, but the tracker scandal shows that we still have a long way to go before the banks are under control and regulated correctly.
“Ireland is part of the common market and the tracker mortgages are based on the lowest rates available in Europe. The fact that we have been deceived and families left financially devastated by the banks, who illegally placed mortgage holders on higher rates when they were not entitled to, shows that in this area also the Central Bank, the regulators and the ombudsman are all in the dark as to the dealings of the banks in this country.”
Deputy Murphy added that the EU common market should enable Irish citizens to avail of better rates when taking out a mortgage, and so far this does not happen.
“Big businesses and the Government can avail of the lowest rates in Europe when borrowing money, but the individual is not allowed to access competitive rates and are at the mercy of the banks,” he said. “The same applies to buying a car or taking out insurance, and if one of the ‘perks’ of being in the EU is that we are all in a common market place, then why can the Government not ensure that the favourable rates are available to all EU citizens in all cases?
