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

To take Mr. O'Connor's example - he wrote the specifics into the bank's modelling - let us consider circumstances where there is no unsecured debt outside of the specifics, where there are no outstanding debts with any other creditor, for example, a credit union, a credit card company or a different bank in respect of a car loan, and where the only entity with which the couple involved is engaging in arriving at a resolution is AIB. If such a couple approached me, I would state they would be obliged to choose an option. Either they could make structured repayments over 35 years - albeit with some level of change involved - or endure six years of hardship after which they would be out the gap. It has been suggested that where this has happened, customers have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If a client is offered a split mortgage or some other solution and if he or she chooses to apply for a personal insolvency arrangement and endure six years of hardship rather than entering a structured programme that would take him or her up to retirement age, would the bank - as it is capable of doing - veto such an arrangement? In the context of the model with which we have been presented, a person in the circumstances to which I refer really is insolvent and he or she would quality for a personal insolvency arrangement. Would the bank veto the latter?