Mr. John O'Beirne:

The Deputy has absolutely nailed it with her "urban myths" description. They are good for fiction but in practice, we ask about customers' ability to repay all of their debts, including their mortgages. When we look at things like PCPs, car loans or credit union loans, we look at whether repayments on those debts relative to income are sustainable. We also need to understand why such loans were taken out. Certainly they are a factor in the decision but it is not a binary question of customers having borrowed X amount and therefore not being eligible for a mortgage. We look at these things and try to work with customers, depending on their circumstances. It is an overused phrase, but we look at these things on a case-by-case basis. If a customer has debt elsewhere, that is absolutely fine. People take out loans for many reasons and they use credit unions for many reasons. We also provide personal loans for a variety of issues and we look at loans in terms of what they mean for customers' ability to repay a mortgage. Once we are comfortable in terms of their net disposable income, we will look to the macro-prudential lending rules on the loan-to-income ratio. In principle, there is absolutely no issue with that.