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

I thank Mr. Duffy. With the committee's permission, I will publish his opening statement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

I will defer my questioning until the end of the first round, but let me put this question to Mr. Duffy before I invite other members to contribute. Does he have a response to Ms Fiona Muldoon's recent comments which were very much directed at his bank and Bank of Ireland, that they were in denial in respect of the mortgage difficulties, that their response to date had been very much one of wait and see, that the issue of forbearance about which Mr. Duffy spoke was one of merely keeping something going on an infinite basis which, in some cases, was making people's situation worse, and that, with the Personal Insolvency Bill coming down the tracks, we should have seen more innovative approaches from both banks?