Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am surprised to hear that, particularly in the context of new mortgages. In 2009 the Central Bank gave a very clear opinion that it was very much opposed to mortgages with terms of more than 25 years. In the long term advancing such mortgages would give rise to another property bubble because by scheduling over a 35-year period, all one would be doing was facilitating an additional value being placed on properties.

I return to a matter I raised with the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation this morning. In the context of the residential sector, property values are now approaching normalisation. The properties to which I refer are not undervalued; they have reached their real value. If, therefore, one applies lending criteria to a couple, namely, three and a half to four times the principal earner's income plus the secondary earner's income, surely it should be possible for people to repay mortgages over 20 or 25 years.

Thirty-five-year mortgages are as crazy as 100% mortgages.