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

We will come back to that later because owing to time constraints I need to move on to other issues. On the issue of sustainability in relation to mortgages, the definition in this regard appears to be the ability of a person in financial distress to meet some level of obligation in order to remain in the family home. I am speaking in this regard predominantly about residential mortgages rather than those taken out on buy-to-let properties. I would like to tease out the following issue which I raised in correspondence earlier this year with Professor Honohan. Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and Ulster Bank have stated that at this time they are prohibited from engaging in resolution processes that run into the time of retirement. For example, where a person is in positive equity and in receipt of a decent pension and can well service the interest proportion of his or her loan and, possibly, even pay a proportion of the capital, the banks are not allowed to engage in a resolution process with that person. When I examined the representatives of Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank on this issue they said they were favourable to this type of approach but are prohibited from doing so. Why is this?