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

It does not take a long time if a general principle is established and adopted. What about the moral responsibility on the lenders who gave so freely and readily - almost unconditionally - to so many? I am differentiating in respect of those people who refuse to pay anything at all on the basis that everybody can pay a small amount, including those on social welfare benefits, all of whom have to pay local authority rent and so on. I would welcome a response to my question on whether the lender has a moral responsibility to look backwards and forwards at the same time in regard to whether the loans which they approved were approved in good faith or whether they were approved in the clear knowledge that the property would be repossessed at a later stage.