Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. O'Keeffe mentioned consistency and being very confident that a consistent approach has been adopted by all the banks in all write-downs that have been negotiated. I will share the experience of my constituent who was in a three-way partnership. A small building company bought some sites, developed them and sold them on and was doing quite well right through the 2000s, until the crash came. At the time of the crash, the company owed AIB €755,000. The developers engaged extensively. I may have made representations to Mr. O'Keeffe on their behalf at the time. I stand corrected on that, but I certainly made representations to whom it was subsequently sold on to.

At the time, the developers offered to pay €400,000, which was 52% of what was owed. That was rejected outright. Any suggestions or offers were rejected outright and the loan book was subsequently sold to a vulture fund that subsequently sold the properties for much less than was originally offered by the developers. They looked at the story over the past fortnight and wondered what they had done wrong, in that they were not able to achieve a similar arrangement. They questioned whether it was that they were simply a three-way partnership from rural Ireland that did not have a high profile. However, their offer to AIB was substantially greater than the write-down that was given in a well-documented case.