Mr. Shane O'Sullivan:

I thank the Deputy for his comment on the buy-to-let. When we announced this, we stated we would work with a cohort of buy-to-let customers. That cohort is up to 1,000 borrowers and we have been doing this in recent weeks. At this stage, we have written to approximately 600 of those customers. The proposition, with which Deputy is familiar, allows the borrower to take 30 days to consider the offer. The first 30 days for customers will elapse over the coming days. As the Deputy might expect, at this stage the number of those who have taken it up is quite limited, but certainly our interaction with customers is very good and there are certainly a lot of customers who will take up the offer.

We have a slightly different proposition for home loans. The Deputy may be familiar with the fact we have spoken to the committee about an offer whereby if customers pay up to 20% of the shortfall the bank is minded to write off the remaining shortfall. The way we see this progressing for home loan customers is through the mortgage to rent scheme. We are actively working with a preferred partner. We are conscious the scheme has been significantly overhauled. We welcome this overhaul and we want to participate in a very material way. Our expectation is that up to 2,000 customers could avail of mortgage to rent. With mortgage to rent the shortfall is written off in its entirety.

It is our hope that customers will see the refreshed mortgage-to-rent scheme for what is it but clearly, that is a borrower decision.