Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While Ulster Bank is regulated by the Central Bank, we do not have a shareholding in it. We do, however, have 99% of the shares in AIB and 14% of the shares in Bank of Ireland. I read in this morning’s newspapers what the chief executive of Ulster Bank had said at the committee yesterday. It was not as blunt as Deputy Micheál Martin represented it.

What he said was that the purpose of legal letters to many customers was to get them to engage, because solutions cannot be brought forward unless they engage. The purpose was not to proceed to repossession but to get engagement in the process when the letters that had been written previously were being ignored by customers.

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