Mr. Ed Sibley:

To respond to the Chairman's final point, what he articulated is what genuinely has been happening for the past eight years or more. We pushed the banks really hard from 2010 onwards to restructure loans sustainably in to address borrowers' individual circumstances. Behind every number - and I will talk about the number presently - there are individuals, and I genuinely appreciate that. To give a sense of the matter, one in eight owner-occupier mortgages was in default at the peak of the problems with non-performing loans. That is down to about one in 16. That is still obviously too many, but that number has been achieved through the splits to the arrears caps, the term extensions and the forbearance. At an individual level, the individual circumstances of these borrowers have been understood, assessed and restructured on that basis, and this has required sacrifices on the part of the borrowers. It has also required engagement with the banks. Underneath that, through the waterfall, there are protections in place, via both the private sector and the public sector, in the form of organisations that are there to try to assist borrowers in distress. I refer here to the Insolvency Service of Ireland and, ultimately, the courts. The process the Chairman describes has been happening. Now, however, five years on from the peak of the level of difficulties with non-performing loans, we still have a big chunk of borrowers who are not just two years but five years past due. If we are going to have the functioning market we talked about that serves the country, that does require those to be addressed. Whether those loans are with a bank or not with a bank, the bank is required to engage and consider the individual person's circumstances and try to address them.

One point of detail the Chairman raised relates to portfolios. The CCMA's protections are focused on owner-occupier mortgages - that is, those relating to the family home. If a borrower has invested in a portfolio of loans, that is a different matter and the protections are somewhat different.