In 2015, the Central Bank began its formal tracker mortgage examination. Problems had been identified as far back as 2010 by the bank and for years, the Central Bank and the Financial Services Ombudsman failed to grasp the importance of the issue. This left it up to individuals and families to fight for their rights. The State arrived very late to this issue and the Government even later. Permanent TSB for years dragged these cases all the way to the Supreme Court before dropping its challenge. Now, more than two years later, there are still thousands waiting to get their own money back. The banks and, I am sure, the Government will want this issue gone, but it is far from finished. The banks are still at it. We know it is going to cost the banks up to €1 billion. Up to 100 family homes have been stolen from working families by these very same banks, including State-owned banks. More than 33,000 accounts, individuals and families, have been affected by this, with more to come as the banks play silly buggers with the numbers every week.

We are asked to believe three things. First, as tracker mortgages became cheaper for consumers, 11 lenders in the State all suffered a systems error or a lack of communication. Second, the banks just happened to be benefitted by hundreds of millions of euro while their customers lost out. Third, these errors just happened to occur at a time when it was beneficial for the banks. There was no design, no intent, just a set of three handy coincidences, which all happened to benefit the banks. I do not buy it, yet nobody has been held responsible. They come before the committee and they write letter after letter to their customers, apologising, while at the same time taking no responsibility.

Where is the accountability? Why does the State refuse to hold white-collar criminals to account? Lives have been destroyed. Families have been broken up. People have suffered very seriously, including mental health issues and suicidal tendencies. Again, the banks continue to behave in a thuggish manner.

Last night, as I was leaving here, I got a call from an individual who was livid at what he heard the bankers tell the finance committee. He told me he was one of the individuals who lost their homes as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal perpetrated by a State-owned bank. He told me that despite what the bankers were telling the committee, the bank is fighting him tooth and nail in order that he does not get his proper compensation and redress. He told me he is left with no option but to take this issue to the court and he feels let down and betrayed again and again by the agencies that should be there to protect him. This is the equivalent of the State hounding its own victims.

What is the Government going to do to hold individual bankers to account for the crimes they have committed? What will the Government do to ensure this will never happen to an Irish citizen again? What legislation will the Government introduce to make sure these individuals will shake if they think of again taking money off Irish citizens in the way they have done? More than €1 billion has been stolen and not one individual has been held to account.

It has been made perfectly clear in the last number of months that the Government is taking this very seriously. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has spoken about it over and over again and, indeed, has answered questions from Deputy Doherty on these issues. The Central Bank published its latest update on the tracker mortgage examination in late December. This indicated that in or around 33,700 customers were affected by tracker mortgage failings, which was a total scandal. This includes 7,100 cases involving tracker mortgage issues, which were remediated outside the industry-wide examination. So far, just over €316 million has been paid in redress and compensation to borrowers identified as impacted from the industry-wide examination. The Central Bank also confirmed that the five main mortgage lenders were on course to meet their October 2017 commitments and that known issues around disputed groups in respect of lenders have been resolved to the satisfaction of the Central Bank.

The Central Bank has advised that it is currently pursuing four enforcement investigations and it has stated that it expects all of the main mortgage lenders will face enforcement investigations, which I think is what the Deputy is looking for. Permanent TSB and KBC recently appeared before the Oireachtas finance committee. Permanent TSB indicated that a total of 1,979 customers had been affected and it was also indicated that nearly 2,500 KBC customers remain on the wrong rate. The Government continues to support the Central Bank in its efforts to complete the tracker examination as quickly as possible and it looks forward to receiving a further update from the Central Bank in due course, towards the end of March. The Minister for Finance has made it clear that if we have to introduce new legislation in this area then we will do that, but that will be based on the Central Bank's report and recommendations on how we should take this forward from a legislative point of view.

The Tánaiste said, "if we have to introduce new legislation". The bankers stole up to €1 billion from 33,000 families in the State, they took their homes off them, they crippled them financially and emotionally, they broke up families, they sent people to the edge, and the Tánaiste tells me, "if we have to introduce new legislation". Not a single banker will be held to account. The enforcement procedures of the Central Bank will slap them with a fine and the bankers will place that fine onto the pockets of their customers in increased charges and increased rates. Today, as we speak, KBC and Ulster Bank are still telling us brazenly that they have thousands of customers on the wrong rate. Permanent TSB tells us everything is fixed, yet its customers tell us they are on the wrong rate. Bank of Ireland is fighting its own employees because it put them on the wrong rate. Victims have been failed by the Central Bank, the Financial Services Ombudsman and the Government and they have to go and take the risk to fight these banks in the High Court.

We brought forward class action legislation in this House and, thankfully, we will have the support of other Opposition parties. The Government opposed it, however - it opposed giving a chance to the victims to stand together. I will bring forward legislation next week, which will make it a crime for bankers to lie to the Central Bank, which they have done. This means they will face a term of imprisonment. Will the Government oppose that also?

Time, please. I call the Tánaiste.

Let us get real with this. Let us get a grip on this. Let us bring in legislation to make sure that bankers will never, ever be able to do this again.

We are in a process here. The focus is to try to get people their money back, first and foremost. The Government strongly supports the Central Bank in the work that it needs to do to make sure that this does not happen again and to make sure that people who have suffered financially, not only get their money back, but get appropriately compensated also. The Minister for Finance has introduced changes to make sure this can happen. However, that does not mean this is the end of the process. What the Deputy is calling for is in advance of the next update, which we need to get from the Central Bank to know where we are in regard to ensuring the banks follow through on the commitments they have been forced to make by the Central Bank and, indeed, the Minister for Finance in the context of the meetings he has had with the banks.

This process is not over. The first thing we must do is to focus on ensuring that people get their money back and are adequately compensated. That is the primary focus of both the Central Bank and Government.