Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions to ask. Before I do so, I will make an observation. Two possible scenarios are playing out here. Both of them involve a bias against the majority of ordinary people and favour those with wealth in our society. In the first scenario, there is a public suspicion. Today, there is a bank opposition challenging the view that there is one rule for people who are wealthy or famous and another for the rest of us. If that were to be true, it is obviously completely wrong in every sense. I listened carefully to the arguments put forward by the representatives of AIB. If it is the case there is consistency right down the line, then there is still a bias against ordinary people. As the old saying goes, "If you owe €5,000 and you can't pay it back, you've got a problem. But if you owe €5 million and you can't pay it back, it is the bank that has the problem." Despite the fact no rules of engagement or laws are being broken and everything is being done according to the book, the little guy loses out to a greater extent than the bigger guy by virtue of the size of his or her debt. It may be the same percentage that is written down, but the sums are far greater. That is just an observation.

As I understand it, and I stand to be corrected, there have been 150,000 write-downs by the bank since 2015. Is that correct?