Labour TD for Cork South-West, Michael McCarthy, has said there is a need to publicise the number of mortgage appeals that are being approved or refused by State-owned banks.
Mr McCarthy said: "People have a right to know if State-owned banks are turning over a healthy number of appeals or if they are refusing them. It can happen that mortgage-holders engaged in a Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process may be unhappy with the initial expenditure guidelines set out for them by their bank and so they turn to the bank’s internal appeals board for a second chance.
"Whilst we hope that these boards will be favourable to customers in mortgage distress, in the absence of actual figures it is impossible to know that this is the case for sure. Recently I tabled Parliamentary Questions which sought information on the numbers of appeals that were being submitted to appeal boards but was duly informed that the Central Bank do not have these statistics on file, and in any event, that the covered banks themselves will not disclose this type of information.
"I find this astonishing given the data collection systems which I understand operates at the Central Bank. Furthermore, the fact that banks, which have been salvaged by the cash-strapped taxpayer, will not disclose this information is grossly unfair, and it reinforces the view that they are unaccountable to the public.
"I am calling on the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to address what is a seeming attempt by State-owned banks to fudge a simple request for information on their mortgage appeals processes. I will also be contacting the Governor of the Central Bank about this issue."
