Mr. Shane O'Sullivan:

At present our default position is that any shortfall after the sale is the responsibility of our customer, namely, the borrower. In practice this means we will sit down with the customer after the sale and examine his or her financial position. If there is an ability to contribute to the shortfall we will request it. However, we will look at issues from an economic point of view and if there is no affordability or ability to repay the shortfall we will not pursue it.

It is fair to state we have learned a lot on this journey over the past 15 to 18 months. We have not done everything right and we have no monopoly on good ideas. Of our options, the assisted voluntary sale is the one with the least take-up from customers and this is probably not surprising. The take-up of most of our other treatments is approximately 85%. We are piloting an idea whereby we are more explicit and make a commitment upfront to the customer before the property is sold as to what we would do with the shortfall. This proposal would see the use of capital at the end of the process. We are working this through with up to 200 customers at present and once the pilot completes we will assess, take our findings and recommendations and move forward.