Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to follow up on what Deputy Tóibín mentioned about arrears. I had also noticed that Permanent TSB exercised its veto over insolvency arrangement proposals in what I estimated to be one third of all cases. I was struck by the opening remarks that the insolvency process was being given too much attention. As everyone in the room is aware, a proposal has gone to Cabinet to attempt to change how mortgage arrears are being dealt with.

Two things struck me about the figures for arrears. If my maths are correct, Permanent TSB seems to have issued legal proceedings in approximately 40% of the buy-to-let mortgages that were in arrears for more than 90 days. Similarly the bank seems to have initiated legal proceedings in approximately one third to 40% of home loans in arrears of more than 90 days. We all know the historical figures are very low and we know the reasons for them being so low. It is because organisations, not necessarily Permanent TSB, do not wish to take hits at a particular moment of time historically. In my experience in dealing with mortgage arrears cases, there is no willingness whatsoever to engage with clients. Looking at the arrears figures, there seems to be much more interest in engaging with clients now and particularly bringing them towards court proceedings.

I was also under the impression that the position of Permanent TSB on debt forgiveness was that it did not write down the residual portion of an outstanding debt. There is a proposal on the table to reduce the bankruptcy period from three years to one year. Knowing that in one third of cases the bank will not agree to a proposal that is being made and that they would have residual debt attached to them for the foreseeable future - I would regard 20 years or even ten years as a lifetime commitment in terms of outstanding debt - why would someone not go down the road of bankruptcy?