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

Before we commence, I ask Members to switch off their mobile telephones and not to put them on silent, please. When the banks were before us a fortnight ago, there were many complaints from the public listening in or watching the meeting and from the press room - the press may not have been in the Press Gallery but were watching the proceedings on monitors - because they were not able to hear what was happening due to sound distortions caused by electronic equipment. Having a telephone or an iPad on silent mode is not sufficient. If Members' iPads use a 3G system they will need to turn off the cellular connection and operate strictly on Wi-Fi. The same applies to laptops and other electronic devices.

With the technical lesson out the way, we move on to matters relating to the economy, including mortgage resolution, banking and credit provision. I welcome Professor Patrick Honohan, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland. The Governor previously appeared before the committee on 16 January. We are pleased to welcome back the Professor.

Professor Honohan will make opening remarks, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Before we start, I remind members, witnesses and those in the public galleries to switch off all mobile phones. I advise the witness that, by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. If they are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to so do, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given. They are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person or persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or any official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

Professor Honohan will recall from my correspondence to him that I am looking explicitly for information on the areas which arose from our recent meetings with the banks. I indicated that he might define what is an acceptable, sustainable solution in dealing with distressed mortgages, together with the datasets that are to be used to ensure uniformity of reporting for direct comparative purposes. An issue that the committee looked at when the banks were before us was how we will be able to make comparisons between them because when they brought their formulas to us there was no uniformity in their approaches. Another issue to consider is how debt resolution may be looked at post-retirement. Finally, when we spoke to some of the banks they told us they used modelling that was not prescribed in the resolution processes, which included concessions on mortgages. We are interested in hearing Professor Honohan's thoughts on those matters in his opening comments or in the course of our engagement this afternoon. I invite Professor Honohan to make his opening comments.