Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There were 4,600 split mortgages in the Project Glas portfolio. My concern is that Permanent TSB - with all of the expertise it has, all of the money it spends on its advisers and legal fees and all of the salaries enjoyed at board level - has obviously considered this issue and decided to plough ahead with the sale of 4,600 split mortgage performing loans. As Mr. Groarke rightly said, we did get a response from the ECB. That was because we recognised that something was wrong. We are not involved in banking but we are people who hold financial institutions to account in this committee. AIB could do it and Bank of Ireland could do it, so why could Permanent TSB not do it? Ms Nouy confirmed to Mr. Matt Carthy, MEP, that - in contrast to what was said by Mr. Masding and Mr. Groarke - a senior loan resulting from a split mortgage restructure can return to being classified as performing. She also confirmed that it can be considered a sustainable long-term method of restructuring retail mortgages, provided that the restructuring complies with all the conditions established under European laws.

The point I made to Mr. Groarke at the last meeting was that Permanent TSB structured its split mortgages in such a way that they are now classified as non-performing. What Permanent TSB needed to do, however, and what it still needs to do, is to restructure them and bring them into line with what AIB and Bank of Ireland have done instead of selling them to vulture funds. I welcome the fact that since that last meeting, Permanent TSB has decided not to include those 4,600 loans in Project Glas. To me, however, that does not get to the core of it. It is a welcome development because Permanent TSB's decision had caused much stress to those 4,600 mortgage holders and their families. I just see incompetence here. I do not mean that personally but that is what I see. Permanent TSB was marching ahead in this direction until we challenged it at the last meeting. It figured out then that there was a different way and that it was not necessary to do what it was going to do.