Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to pick Professor Honohan up on this because I have very little time. He stated if we gain blanket write-down to current market values across the board instead of the failing system of dealing with it individually, which has delivered nothing so far and even Fiona Muldoon accepts it delivers virtually nothing, that the public would have to pick it up. I will put another scenario to Professor Honohan. This year banks in this country will pay out €17.4 billion to senior bondholders. They already have this money because we put it in there and they will pay it out to senior bondholders. I propose they do not do so, and we could use the money to provide the write-down on mortgage debt. It would not require any further cost for the public or any further borrowing to add to our national debt. What is wrong with this?