Mr. Stephen Bell:

In regard to the 2,000 customers, this is an approximate number of customers who are already in the legal process. We have stated our policy that where a person who is 90 days in arrears and has not engaged with the bank, we would have to initiate legal action. It is the responsible thing to do. We are using the commitments we made on Monday to encourage people who may have thought it is too late, because the legal process has commenced that it is not too late to deal with the bank. We want to encourage them by saying it is never too late. It is only too late when the judge finally announces an eviction date, which is something we want to avoid at all costs. We have ensured that at every court hearing there is a representative of the bank available so if the customer arrives at the court process wishing to engage we can pick up with them there and then. We have adjourned hearings in the past because the customer has approached us prior to the hearing, saying they would like to talk to us about a solution.

The overwhelming message about the commitments we made is that engagement is critical and it is never too late to engage. We think it is important to recognise that the kind of payments we are looking for when a restructured home loan repayment is agreed will be substantially less, by some margin, than an equivalent private rental cost. The reason for our comments regarding eligibility for social housing is because of the income level that would be relevant for that consideration. There is absolutely no way we are able to restructure the mortgage so that it becomes affordable for somebody at that level of income. We think it is the responsible thing to do to say that if somebody's financial circumstances have deteriorated so much that they are reliant on the State to provide housing, it would be irresponsible of us to pursue them for a shortfall after the property has been sold. Where somebody in our opinion is perfectly able to service a restructured home loan and simply does not wish to, then if the end of that process is the sale of the property, we would look at recovery of the shortfall. We think that is the right thing to do because if the customer had engaged, we believe we could find a solution which would have kept them in the home, which is absolutely our first priority at all times.