Mr. Brendan Burgess:

A very interesting point was made about whether mortgage indemnity insurance would increase repossessions. If one asked me that yesterday, I probably would have said that it would. I do not support mortgage indemnity insurance but I was persuaded by Genworth's argument today. In the paper it submitted, it said that over the past five years in Ireland it had worked with lenders to help 15,000 families stay in their homes ahead of foreclosure and has paid over €70 million. The standard policy for mortgage indemnity insurance only pays out on repossession but we could make sure that the actual policy is changed so that it would be adapted to Irish circumstances and facilitate split mortgages, etc. Genworth claims it has done this and I am taking that at face value.