Mr. Brendan Burgess:

To clarify one issue, I was shocked to see the Tanager letter, which was sent to people about six months ago. Arrears capitalisation is not one of the options we offer. Arrears capitalisation is the simplest rescheduling. It does not cost the banks anything but they have changed their tune. They are now capitalising arrears. I have seen this quite a bit. People who received that letter are now getting deals. To clarify the types of deals that are being done, it is much easier to do a deal on a buy-to-let property than on a family home. If I have a buy-to-let mortgage of €300,000 and the property is worth €200,000, the funds will tell me to sell it for €200,000 and they will write off the shortfall. They, and Tanager in particular, are also saying to borrowers "Look, you've a mortgage of €300,000. We'll take €200,000." They are saying that to homeowners but, of course, the catch is that no other lender will give them the money so they have to get it from family. Alternatively, if the arrears are old arrears, for example, if they arose four or five years ago, I have seen cases where they are able to go to Pepper and get what it calls a near-prime loan. In those cases, there will be plenty of equity. I have seen people being offered very good deals but they always involve paying off the loan.