Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This goes to the nub of the issue. Perhaps Mr. O'Connor could provide a quick clarification. Is there not a certain amount of timidity in the way the insolvency system approaches this? For example, I - and all of the members here - deal with cases on behalf of constituents. One of the issues that has arisen time and again relates to situations where the banks tell borrowers that they are insolvent and that their cases are unsustainable. However, four or five years previously, the same lending institutions deemed the cases to be sustainable and awarded loans that were way in advance of what could or should have been awarded under good banking practices. Unless the insolvency services challenge that in court, the borrower is always going to lose.