Mr. David Hall:

I watched the last time that Permanent TSB and AIB were before the committee. There was some discussion around loan sales and upcoming loan sales. It is fair to say that both Permanent TSB and AIB have engaged with iCare through mortgage to rent and also in reviewing - and I will be careful here - other alternatives to loan sales. Following the request from the Chair at that last meeting, both banks have fully engaged in that process and it is ongoing. The withdrawal yesterday of 6,800 loans from Permanent TSB's Project Glas is very welcome. Ulster Bank, unfortunately, now has the loans of thousands of families being sold for the second time. That is reprehensible and needs to be stopped. There was full engagement on the loan sales following the committee's last intervention to request alternatives be looked at. They are being reviewed.

In regard to iCare Housing's mortgage-to-rent product, both Permanent TSB and AIB have signed up to mortgage-to-rent solutions. They are both writing off the full residual debt that is left over. This is commercially sensitive but both have confirmed and signed up to discounted prices on the purchase of those mortgage-to-rent loans. Between them, there is a couple of hundred customers. To be fair to Permanent TSB, prior to Project Glas, in our discussion with the bank it agreed to remove 1,000 customers from Project Glas who might be eligible for a mortgage-to-rent solution and it has done so. It is fair to say, therefore, that both lenders have fully engaged with the spirit and the intent of mortgage-to-rent. That is important. People say things. AIB wrote to 3,000 customers facing repossession in January. A record breaking 1,250 replied. Permanent TSB has begun the same process in a joint letter of correspondence between ourselves and the bank encouraging people to engage and advertising the benefits of iCare and mortgage-to-rent solutions.