Ms Noeline Blackwell:

I would like to comment on what the Senator said about the need to preserve the property intact as it goes through. I am beginning to struggle to understand what is the problem with keeping these vehicles or shelf companies. Given that they all seem to be so nebulous and small, etc., what harm is done by keeping them? Of course the person servicing the loan and doing the negotiation must be held to account. What is the problem with also recognising the need to keep the owner in the frame when it comes to redress for the consumer? Our colleagues in Banking and Payments Federation Ireland have made the point that we should hold the servicers to account because they have extensive reputations and assets. In that context, it is even more worrying if we are selling on these loan books to entities that have neither reputations nor assets and are out of the frame entirely. I am no longer seeing the logic of what this change is about We will be taking it back to the Department of Finance if this is the continued proposal.