Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will go through the numbers with regard to sustainable solutions. There are four columns, the first of which relates to term extension. The majority of these cases - almost 4,000 of them - involve arrears capitalisation, to which the second column relates. The other two columns relate to a number of other smaller items which seem to involve normal repayments. Most of these people would have come out of arrears without the help of Ulster Bank. It should be offering the range of solutions that are stipulated by the Central Bank. Ulster Bank does not offer the majority of those solutions, including debt write-down, debt for equity and mortgage to rent.

These solutions are not being dealt with by Ulster Bank. Ulster Bank is very clearly trying to squeeze the last cent out of customers who, through their own fault in some cases, borrowed excessively. However, there was a culture in which Ulster Bank was engaged which encouraged people and touted the idea of 100% mortgages. Ulster Bank led people up that merry path and when they are there, in 52% of cases, the option the bank chooses is to take them to court.