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

In making his point, Deputy Fleming is misinterpreting my position. Mr. Boucher is chief executive officer of Bank of Ireland, which has a well known position of no discounts or write-downs. However, that is not the situation across the banks. AIB, for example, has given discounts amounting to €480 million in its restructuring of mortgages over the last two years, and other lending agencies have also come into arrangements where there are write-downs. My position is that this is a very serious issue. It is particularly serious for families in arrears and it is traumatic for families which, through illness or unemployment, cannot service their mortgages at all and face the risk of their houses being repossessed. I am saying the range of solutions involves dealing with mortgages on a case-by-case basis and I believe the solutions should involve write-downs. Some of the lending agencies do that, but Bank of Ireland does not, and the State does not have a controlling shareholder interest in Bank of Ireland; we have 14%.