Mr. David Hall:

Part of the problem is the Central Bank of Ireland. The Central Bank set the rules in respect of what the banks are allowed to restructure. The Central Bank has shown minimum flexibility in allowing the banks to restructure loans. They would not understand. One would want to send them a dictionary so that they would understand the word "radical". They would have to look it up. The Central Bank of Ireland would not understand what the word "radical " means. Therein lies the problems.

The banks are completely controlled in what they are allowed to do by the Central Bank of Ireland. On many occasions one could have a go at a bank and be in dispute with a bank around similar circumstances to what the Senator mentioned about people who had approached her in court, where there is a small differential between where the loan can be salvaged and where they cannot be salvaged. They will not accept it. The mistake being made by many people - and this goes back to Deputy Pearse Doherty's question - is that this is not an àla cartenormal negotiation that people engage in. This is a prescribed production line, prescribed by the Central Bank of Ireland in an inhumane, callous manner that is governed by a code that is an administrative process designed to tick some boxes and not provide solution. Many, 33%, of the people who are in the 119,000 category whose loans have been restructured are capitalising the arrears, that is just adding it on and elongating the loan. I know that Mr. Burgess has mentioned that the interest rates are the highest in Europe. AIB is not doing too badly with the high interest rates and it made €1.6 billion last year. It will make a bit more money if we decide to throw out a couple of thousand people on the street. It is all relevant. There is a social responsibility on banks. Banks by their mere existence are there at our behest, having pumped billions into them. I do not know if they have got amnesia. I know that dementia is rampant throughout the country. We have a major problem with people forgetting that we pumped billions of euro into the banks and they have a social responsibility. One point Mr. Burgess has mentioned is correct that there is an obsession in banks in relation to ensuring that nobody is seen to get a deal, whereas somebody else might to voluntarily stop making payments.