Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If one carries that over to the SME sector, it opens up all sorts of issues. We have had a lot of loans bought by unregulated funds from NAMA, the IRBC special liquidator and the banks. Those business loans are now owned by funds which will churn them. They will turn them over within a three to five-year horizon. My concern is vulture funds to one extent but this has played out in other economies in the past with loans sold on again and again and they may end up in some pretty unsavoury hands in the end.

Ultimately, this is what happens and the entities in question are completely unregulated, although they are required to appoint an intermediary under the credit servicing legislation. I have heard of cases in Dublin involving offers being made and people being asked if they were interested in particular bundles of loans. While it is properties that are being touted, it is loans that are being sold. If I am a hotelier and I know the hotelier down the road has a loan with a fund, I could make an approach to buy his loan with nothing but destructive intentions as regards the other hotelier's business. Will Mr. Sheridan comment on this? Where will loans end up when they are repeatedly sold and what are the exposures?