Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Richie Boucher would be proud of the Minister. That is all I can say. He was here two weeks ago and gave the exact same line. He said people took out the debt, they knew the value of the mortgage, they should not be looking for him if they want a write-down and are not expecting their neighbours to carry the cost. That is the Richie Boucher line: there will be no write-offs. Bear in mind that when those loans were sold by those banks on to the other companies, the write-down and the hole in the balance sheet was fixed by the taxpayer. There was no problem with the taxpayer coming up with the money to repair the hole in the banks as a result of selling off these loans at a discount. The taxpayer has no problem with paying it to make that half of the equation good, but God forbid an individual should get a write-down. It is fine for the banks to write down their loans when they are selling them off at a discount and to ask the taxpayer to pay, but that should not trickle down to the individual. It is only at the commercial end that debts get written off in this country. That is what is annoying people. Only the businesses and the banks are getting their debts written off, but it does not apply to the individual. I understand what the Minister is saying about the neighbour next door who is fully tax-compliant and fully up to speed with their mortgage, but the taxpayer has picked up the tab where the bank loans were sold off at a discount, resulting in a hole in their balance sheets. I have made my point. There are discounts for everyone bar the homeowner.