Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What is coming up with the SME sector we are meeting - I refer to family-owned businesses and so forth - is that, in certain cases, some of their loans are very much asset based. During the relevant period, they would have invested in property, in many cases in regard to the business. They now find their loans may not be sustainable at the current level but that the asset values in respect of those loans may cover a much higher proportion of the loans. They are extremely nervous about the possibility of their loans - including home loans - being sold to a vulture fund. It is getting to a point where most of them are actually engaging with AIB. What view does AIB take of someone who comes to it and who has a loan that is not sustainable at its current level in terms of the core business the person is in but who has, in many cases, businesses in buildings that are probably of a higher value? Such people are worried that their loans will be sold as a bundle to a vulture fund, with the result that businesses they built up over five to 20 years will be gone. What is AIB's view on the writing down of loans that are asset backed?