Ms Angela Black:

I would not be speaking on behalf of anybody if I were to express an opinion about that. I would be merely saying, in my opinion, that it has been up and down. The fact there is a need for consumer protection codes in the first place reflects the fact that a lot of the time people are in over their heads. Sometimes it is down to how they are treated by the lender and sometimes it is down to how they have viewed the undertaking they have taken on. When it comes to a mortgage situation, in particular, everybody knows that people are in over their head. The approach, both from the Legislature and from ourselves in the community, in reacting and protecting people, has had to reflect the fact the arrears do not get better and that they get worse and need to be dealt with. In a factual and neutral way, we deal with whatever comes up.

We deal with the lenders, some of whom treat customers very well but others do not. As it got into the longer mortgage arrears, we had to do this response, which we are pleased the Government has supported, the most recent part of which was the Abhaile launch. Perhaps this would not have been necessary four or five years ago because people were not as far into arrears difficulties as they are now.