Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Where does Mr. Sibley see the mortgage market in Ireland over the next three years in terms of competition, new entrants, and the profile of mortgages - tracker versus variable? Does he believe that the current banking institutions in Ireland have the financial fitness to be able to lend the appropriate amount of loans? We have a major shortage of homes in this country. I note that at the foundation of the State, at one stage, the banks were not lending. The Government moved in the early 1920s and told the banks that if they did not lend they would be nationalised. It is not quite akin to that, but the Central Bank is in the cockpit.

Do we have a banking system that is fit for purpose that can provide lending to enable hard-pressed young people to buy starter homes? There is a lost decade, people who would traditionally have purchased in their twenties but are now in rented accommodation in their 30s. They are worried that by the time they are in their 40s they will not qualify for a mortgage.