It's not the first insurance scandal on our shores

The high commission pocketed on PPI was one of the reasons the Central Bank decided to investigate how the product was sold. The commissions earned by those selling PPI could have been as high as 80pc.

It is not yet clear how high the commissions were on the sale of card protection and identity protection insurance in Ireland. The Sunday Independent last week asked the Central Bank and the main Irish banks to indicate the commissions earned on card protection insurance - but they declined to answer.

Banks were forced to refund €67m to consumers following the Central Bank's PPI probe, which examined the sale of 354,000 policies since July 2007. The average refund received was about €870.

You may have been mis-sold PPI - but haven't yet received your refund. When the Central Bank published its findings into the PPI probe, around 6,000 consumers had not yet responded to letters notifying them that they were entitled to a refund. You're unlikely to have received a letter if you moved address since you bought PPI. If this is the case, you should contact the institution which sold you the PPI, provide it with your new address - and explain that you would like to apply for a refund.

You may of course have been turned down for a refund by your bank - even though you believe you were mis-sold PPI. You can complain to your bank in writing if this is the case and if you are unhappy with its response, you should contact the Financial Services Ombudsman. You cannot complain to the Ombudsman about PPI policies mis-sold more than six years ago - though you could hire a claims management company to see if it can secure a refund on your behalf.