Mr. John Moran:

One of the difficulties covers some of the population to which the Chairman referred. Let us consider the mortgage situation and the SME sector. There has been considerable discussion about how the banks have not been playing ball and that we should have someone come in to help to find a resolution - the Insolvency Service of Ireland has been put into place and so on - ultimately to bring people together to reach agreement. That requires a recognition of the reality of the situation on the bank side and on the borrower side.

Since there are fewer SMEs than there are mortgages and the population is smaller, it should be easier to deal with them. Through the regulatory system we have tried to put pressure on the banks to resolve the loans rather than simply ignore the problem. Sadly, that was what was happening during the earlier phases of this crisis. There is a third party which I believe can play a valuable role in resolving the type of situations to which the Chairman referred. It could bring assistance to the family that has run a business for many generations but who may not be used to dealing with the banks in this kind of a discussion. I am referring to the Credit Review Office. The office has a team of people and they have been successful. Some people have raised problems individually with us but it is not appropriate for us to engage with the banks in respect of an individual borrower. However, we have asked the Credit Review Office to engage and to try to mediate a resolution of the situation. In some cases the office has successfully done so and in some cases we have seen the introduction of third parties to do so. If there is a problem with the operation of the Credit Review Office in this respect, we would like to understand what that is.