KBC Bank Ireland has been fined €18.3 million for taking €154 million from 3,700 of its customers. The bank did not just wrongly take the money from those accounts but in 11 cases it took a family home. The bank wrongly took 66 properties in total from individuals, 39 of those during the investigation. Until October last year, KBC Bank Ireland was wrongly taking money from accounts and overcharging them.

What is going to happen? The problem is that the banks have collectively stolen €1 billion from customer accounts, affecting 40,000 people. They took family homes, causing worry and anxiety, and they took other properties. They will be slapped with a fine but nobody is going to be held individually accountable.

The time is up.

May I ask the Minister this?

No. The Minister must reply.

Will the Government introduce the legislation that the Central Bank has called for in order to hold individual bankers to account in order that people could be jailed for the type of practices that have gone on over the past decade in this State?

First, I acknowledge that the Deputy's statement is absolutely right. What those companies did was totally inappropriate, wrong and unforgivable. The bank in question has been fined €18.3 million because of how it dealt with 3,741 customers, and it has had to repay, to date, €153.5 million. Permanent TSB was previously fined €21 million because of how it treated tracker customers.

As I have said, it is shocking that they wrongly took people off cheap loans and that this led to the loss of 11 family homes. Nobody would condone or accept that. The Government welcomes the actions of the Central Bank to hold KBC to account and compensate borrowers and it has committed to making mortgage lending in Ireland fair and transparent. The programme for Government commits to increasing the availability of long-term fixed rate mortgages, as well as examining the development of green mortgages and State-backed mortgages for first-time buyers. It also commits to examining the introduction of a code of conduct on mortgage switching.

I asked about individual accountability. It has been examined since 2017.

Please, Deputy, you have asked your question.