Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the end of the day, we are here as public representatives. The State effectively owns AIB. We have to ask these questions. In one breath Mr. O'Keeffe is telling me that €3.9 billion may be what we are looking at. The bank has given a commitment, which is welcome, that the €2.4 billion made up of home mortgages will not be included.

There is a balance remaining of €3.9 billion. AIB said it is willing to work on restructuring these SME and farm loans. We are hearing reports in the media about a Project Redwood. We have farmers and SMEs coming to us who are apprehensive about what will happen to their loans because they saw how Ulster Bank sold a similar loan book. Many of them have been dealing with AIB for up to eight or nine years. They are physically and mentally wrecked by this, trying to keep family farms and SMEs together. I accept they may have made investments which, in hindsight, they should not have. However, AIB did give them the money at the time.

We were told by Mr. Jeremy Masding from Permanent TSB that the sale of loans is a six-stage process. The information in the media did not find its way in there just by accident. It is pretty deliberate, speaking about coming down to two or three funds. There is conditioning going on somewhere. AIB owes the committee, the public and the holders of these loans, hard-pressed as many of them are, an answer. Will Mr. O'Keeffe give the committee an indication as to what process AIB will adopt to get to a point when it will work with mortgage holders? Will it do debt forgiveness for SME loans? What is the timescale?