Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Boucher and his team today. I want to recognise the ongoing increase in the performance of Bank of Ireland across a range of metrics. That is to be recognised.

For me and members of the committee, as public representatives, the concern is that some of that performance is coming at the cost of customers who were unfortunate to borrow too much money from Bank of Ireland during the bubble. The arrears targets is really what this is about. My concern is that the significant arrears at Bank of Ireland and various other lenders is the symptom. It is not the problem. The problem is there is a significant number of households - be they in arrears or, as was mentioned earlier, struggling to stay out of arrears - who owe too much money relative to their income. I do not believe that offering customers these types of solutions will solve the problem. I believe that reducing their debt levels relative to their household income will solve the problem.

I will go through the figures Mr. Boucher presented to the committee. Of the 12,700 restructures in place, approximately 3,600, or 30%, are interest only. Would Mr. Boucher accept that moving customers to interest only ultimately increases the total amount paid by a borrower to the bank?