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

I put it to Mr. Brown, based on my experience, that there is a major flaw in the analysis he is making. Approximately 250,000 people who are unemployed at present were not unemployed three or four years ago. They were on good wages at the time, then they lost their jobs and went into arrears and perhaps into a resolution process with Ulster Bank. A number of them have returned to work but they are not returning to work within an ass's roar of what they were earning when they were last employed. Their ability to pay their loans, which they had originally taken out on ratios of between eight and 12 times their income, is still unattainable, although I note we are back now to more modest and prudent lending practices. There is a mindset in the banks in this regard, and I call on the representatives from Ulster Bank to address it this afternoon. Are the loans unsustainable anyway regardless of whether these people return to work, and therefore it does not matter?