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

I thank Professor Honohan. Given there is a fairly packed committee this afternoon, I would propose that we take the first round of questions in batches of ten minutes if that is agreeable and depending on how that is proceeding, in five to six minute batches thereafter.

Before I call on the first speaker, in light of Professor Honohan's comments on the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, his colleague in the Central Bank, Ms Fiona Muldoon, made strong commentary on how the banks themselves were engaging with mortgage debt prior to the passing of the legislation. Now that the insolvency legislation has been passed, one observational difficulty there might be is that with the deferment process that was there prior to the insolvency legislation, the ongoing deferment of problems was making difficulties in some situations even worse where compound debt was merely being added up on top of compound debt. The intention of the insolvency legislation is that it would be seen, for those who are in what might be described as an unrescuable situation or for whom if they were left in their situation it would merely become worse, as an opportunity of getting out of that level of burden. How will the Central Bank set out to monitor how the banks will progressively and positively engage with that legislation?