Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

That is the problem. Mr. Boucher was central to the banks conniving with bondholders, developers and right-wing politicians during the property bubble in legal extortion of a generation of young working people in terms of holding them over a barrel for the human right of having a home over their heads. Following the collapse of the bubble and the crash in the economy, many of them are now on a thread mill of endless suffering and grief.

Bank of Ireland now has 12,700 people subject to forbearance and 103,000 fully performing mortgages, with many at the pin of their collar to make repayments. Included in that 103,000 figure are many people who were forced to borrow exorbitant amounts to purchase a modest home. I again put it to Mr. Boucher that it is high time that not only Bank of Ireland but also banks in general, the Government, the Central Bank of Ireland and the European Central Bank realised that soaking the amount of money they do from hard pressed people is not only causing them huge suffering but is also damaging the economy which Mr. Boucher says he is pledged to assist. Is it not time that all of those mentioned got together and provided for a blanket write-down according to the current value of people's homes and, thus, a write-down calibrated on the monthly repayments? Is that not the solution to this nightmare?