New Central Bank figures show that in excess of 42,000 mortgage accounts have now been identified as having been impacted by the tracker mortgage scandal - but more than a decade on serious questions remain about accountability and transparency, writes John Downes, director of a new two part RTÉ documentary series TRACKERS: The People V The Banks.
It is the single biggest consumer overcharging scandal in the history of the State, which cost the banks at least €1 billion to rectify. Some estimates suggest you can pretty easily add another €500 million to that figure when administrative and other ancillary costs are included.
In late December 2015, as the scale of the Tracker mortgage scandal became known to the Central Bank, the regulator launched its largest ever investigation into all of the major banks in Ireland.
At issue was why, when people fixed their mortgages for 2-3 years, they were refused the option of getting their valuable Tracker mortgage back once this fixed period ended. Many of the same banks under investigation by the Central Bank had been bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of some €64 billion just a few years earlier.
But progress on this investigation was painfully slow, prompting strong criticism of the Central Bank by members of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and in particular its then chairman John McGuinness TD. He tells us he could not believe how long it was taking to get a real handle on the numbers involved.
As late as October 2017 – nearly two years on from the launch of the Central Bank's investigation - and after victims of the scandal told their story publicly to the committee, then Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe was summoning the CEOs of AIB, Bank of Ireland and others to meet with him and demanding action.
He said the testimony of these customers showed just how badly treated and hurt people had been by the tracker mortgage scandal.
"The Central Bank is of the view that some bank behaviour up to now has been unacceptable, legalistic and not customer centred," he said in a statement at the time. "Let me be very clear - the government believes that the behaviour of the banking sector in relation to tracker mortgages was disgraceful. This is a scandal."
For the first time, our documentary series tells the inside story of what exactly went on with the tracker mortgage scandal, which the Central Bank has now confirmed had extended to approximately 42,000 accounts across 11 lenders by June of this year.
This is between four and five times some initial estimates provided by the banks themselves.
Today all of the banks involved are deeply apologetic for their actions at the time, and stress that they have learned their lessons when it comes to dealing with their customers.
But speak to some of those most severely impacted - and the small group of people who tried to shout stop - and you hear a different story. It is one of being told repeatedly there is nothing to see here. You are wrong. We are right.
In this first episode of our two part series, financial advisor Padraic Kissane - perhaps the man most associated in the public mind with the tracker mortgage scandal - recalls how he would work until all hours examining files and trying to put the pieces of the jigsaw together.
He did so after his own clients started telling him they had wrongly been taken off their trackers. As early as 2010, he became convinced that despite what individual banks were telling him, there was a significant potential systemic issue with the tracker mortgage scandal.
So in late 2012 he took out an ad - running it for as long as he could afford in The Irish Independent and The Irish Times - saying he knew exactly what a tracker mortgage was and encouraging people to contact him.
This riff on the famous 'I don’t know what a Tracker mortgage is' TV ad from the Financial Regulator worked straight away.
Within days he was inundated with calls and emails from people looking for his help. All felt sure that their banks were being less than upfront with them when saying they were no longer entitled to their tracker mortgage back.
At its heart, this is a story of real Irish lives affected by the actions of a cold corporate culture unwilling or unable to make things right immediately. And requiring the persistence of people like Kissane alongside campaigning journalists such as Charlie Weston - the man who broke the story of the tracker mortgage scandal - to keep the issue firmly on the public and political agenda.
For every one consumer advocate or journalist who spoke out, there were thousands of victims silently doing their best to survive while being overcharged on their mortgages. The tracker mortgage scandal coincided with the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, and it was this double whammy that made things even tougher for many of those affected.
What we learned over the course of our filming in kitchens, offices and living rooms all around the country is that the effects of this national scandal are far from over. Many of those we spoke to are living with the aftermath of the tracker mortgage debacle to this day, impacting their physical and mental health as well as that of their families. Many still feel they have not been adequately compensated for the pain and trauma they went through.
Thomas and Claire Ryan risked everything to take on their bank, PTSB, in the High Court.
Even though they won their case on a point of law, it would be another seven years before they had their tracker issues resolved. During that time Thomas had a stroke and Claire a nervous breakdown which left her unable to speak. But still Thomas was brave enough to use his voice by appearing with Kissane and three other victims in front of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance at that landmark meeting in October 2017.
We also speak to Balbriggan couple Caitriona and John Redmond, surviving on €70 a week to feed a family of five and having to grow their own food to survive. They fought their case alone.
A future episode in our series meanwhile contains a warning from the past.
Joe Meade was the State's first ever Financial Ombudsman. Speaking publicly about this for the first time, he tells us that as far back as 2009, and shortly before he retired, he ruled in favour of a complainant who should have been given their tracker mortgage back. At the time he felt the case was a potential red flag for a wider systemic issue across all banks.
As Ombudsman, he also had a golden rule which he applied when deciding on a case.
"If there was a product you had sold or a decision you had made, and if you said, 'would I be happy if my elderly father or mother were treated this way'?" he says. "And if you were happy, fine. If you weren't happy, you should look at that decision again."
It was an approach, he says, relied on a bit of "common sense."
Current and future generations of homeowners will hope that the banks - and the various organs of the State - are now listening.
Trackers: The People V The Banks begins this Monday 3 November at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTE Player
