Mr. Brendan O'Connor:

We do not revoke the tracker in such a situation. If the Senator examines our submission, she will see that under buy-to-lets, there are 14 split mortgages. While we do not provide split mortgages in respect of buy-to-lets, they are people who have moved out of the home and have rented it out. We treat them in the same way as we treat any other customer. Under the CCMA, it is now their sole property in the State and, consequently, we treat them the same as we would under the mortgage arrears resolution targets, MART, process or the CCMA. Moving them off a tracker is not a solution for people who are in difficulty, because it will only make the arrears worse. Consequently, we do not treat them any differently.

As for the other questions the Senator asked, I wish to talk to her about one case she mentioned in particular, because as I understand it, I believe the Senator stated we are defying a court order and I would like to know about that. I am not aware of that and have never been made aware of it but I do not believe we would defy a court order to transfer a mortgage. While I am not sure whether the Senator was present when we had this discussion earlier, when someone wishes to come off a mortgage and if there is to be just a single name on that mortgage, we are required, under Central Bank rules, to stress-test the affordability of the person to keep that mortgage. While the person may wish to go onto the mortgage, he or she may not be able to afford it under stressed circumstances and in that case, we cannot give a mortgage because the person concerned does not pass their stress test for it. We have many cases in which people voluntarily, that is, not from a court perspective, transfer their value in the home and also would like to come off the mortgage but that is not possible. We also have many cases in which, given the nature of the situation, we cannot get both sides to agree or cannot get signatures for release or for release of security. It is extremely difficult issue but in particular, if there is a case extant in which there is a court order that we are defying, I would like to know about it and am happy to talk to the Senator afterwards.