John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Byrne mentions defaulters and litigation, with people trying to defend themselves. Many are lay litigants. That is part and parcel of what we must deal with and what was created by the bailout and the behaviour of banks.

In the court case that was decided yesterday Allied Irish Banks suggested that a previous decision might be misinterpreted and relied upon in future litigation and would result in a degree of litigation chaos and uncertainty in law. That was part of the argument put forward by the bank. The bank wanted the judge to amplify the reasoning behind that legal decision. In the course of the submissions, the counsel for Allied Irish Banks informed the court that €7.8 billion of bank loans had been transferred. This relates to AIB mortgages. The end result was that the judge refused to accede to the request of the bank that the court should revisit the judgment. The bank is left with the dilemma, as set out by its own counsel, that there could be chaos and €7.8 billion of transferred funds are now in question. I know the decision was only made yesterday and the bank must consider it but how will it affect the sale to Everyday Finance? Are there in the sale cases that now may go to court? Will the bank examine each of the 800 customer connections in the sale to ensure none of them could be affected by yesterday's decision?