Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will have to think about the response. I would make the point to the Department and whoever is listening - I hope the Minister is listening – that some effort should be made to alert the customers that legislation is being considered which could impact on their mortgages or deposits so that they might have an opportunity to come forward and make their views known. We do not even know the number involved but it probably runs to thousands or tens of thousands. That is an entirely reasonable suggestion. I hope it will be taken on board.

I wish to turn to the other issue relating to Greece in order to get clarity on it. Europe had a bond-buying programme whereby it bought Greek bonds on the secondary market at a significant discount, therefore anticipating a significant profit. We were part of that. The anticipated profit made from buying distressed Greek bonds will be given back to Greece. Europe, and Ireland as part of Europe, is making a benign decision not to profit from Greece’s misery but to give the money back to Greece and the legislation will facilitate that. Is that a reasonable layman’s summary of what we are doing?