Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made many points before coming to that question. I will deal with that as well. I cannot deal with the specific cases that the Deputy has drawn to my attention because I just do not know the facts. I cannot reply to them. The Central Bank has set out, in protocols and regulations, a particular code of conduct for dealing with mortgage arrears. Of the 750,000 mortgages in the country, all but 15,000 to 16,000 are already covered by that code of conduct. What we are doing here is extending the code to the residual group whose portfolios of loans were bought by companies not regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. That is the purpose of the legislation, and the approach I have taken is reasonable.

I was going to say that the Deputy should refer his constituents to the Financial Services Ombudsman, but he said this was done and that they got into some other difficulty. Again, I do not know the details of the case. What we are doing here is covering the difficulties faced by people who are not already covered by the Central Bank's code of conduct.

I am not sure the Deputy is correct when he says the modus operandiof those who buy loan book portfolios is to acquire the asset and sell it. I do not believe that is correct. They normally buy at a discount. What they want to do is to recover a stream of income from the loan book and repair the loan book. Sometimes they want to sell on the loan book. If they repair it and it is performing, it is worth more than if it is impaired. However, repossession of the house and acquiring the asset would seem to be a measure of last resort and would not be normal practice among people who acquire loan books.

It is important that people know whom they are dealing with.