Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for the work they are doing on behalf of consumers and, in particular, those mortgage holders operating in very stressful circumstances. Ms Sadlier referred to a key issue. One of the most sinister developments in recent times was the change to the code of conduct and the option for banks, in certain circumstances, to declare people as not co-operating. It is very much at the discretion of the banks to do this and this is happening at a time when their systems are still not up to standard. During the break in proceedings I returned a number of calls, one of which was to somebody in mortgage arrears and who in the past two weeks received three conflicting letters from the bank. The first declared the person in question to be not co-operating; the second offered a solution, while the third stated the current arrangement was going to expire. The person's telephone calls are not being returned and on each occasion contact is made with the bank, it is with a different individual. The bank is not prepared to facilitate proper engagement in writing, with the exception of the standard letters to which I refer. It is extremely difficult for people to know where they stand. The banks now have at their disposal the weapon of being able to declare people as not co-operating and, essentially, are in a position to move against them - in a legal sense - immediately.

Ms Sadlier made a point also about the percentage of solutions that are in the repossession or voluntary surrender realm. The official figures show that more than 60% of the offers of sustainable solutions under the MART framework are in that area whereby the family home will be lost. It is difficult to understand how that can be stood over in any way.

Mr. Brendan Burgess put forward a different interpretation of a sustainable solution, which is not properly defined at present, but we read that the protocol the Central Bank is trying to put in place with lenders, whereby multiple debts can be dealt with under an agreed formula, is being resisted. What would be the impact of his definition of sustainable mortgage on the other forms of debt, the unsecured debt?