Mr. Ger Deering:

I appreciate the difficulty caused. As I am sure the Deputy is aware, there are fewer protections in the case of buy-to-let properties than there are in the case of a person's private dwelling house. In some respects, that is the way it should be. The home of a person deserves the ultimate protection.

Where loans are not performing, we would be looking at how the bank approached it. The Deputy mentioned a receiver. If a receiver was appointed, we would be looking at whether that was done in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract and in a reasonable way. Our remit would not extend to protecting the tenant if what is being done is not correct. That would be the Residential Tenancies Board Ireland.