Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is a really important point and it leads on to my next question. I was dealing with a woman who received a letter from one of those funds. It was a really bad time in her life. The letter told her basically that she needed to vacate the house in ten days or something. It was only that her daughter contacted me and I was able to contact the Irish Mortgage Holders Association which was able to say that there was no legal standing to that letter, or else she would have thought she had to get out of the house in ten days. To be honest, I would have thought that too. That really showed me something. There were people here last week who said the same thing about the importance of engaging. These entities have no morals and they will just do that kind of thing to people and not care about their situation or the impact it can have on people’s lives. Would MABS see that people get these types of letters a lot? It terrifies people. It has a huge impact on people’s lives. There does not seem to be legal basis for it. There may be other letters that do have a legal basis but that particular one did not.

The opening statement said that banks do not seem to have any patience to try and deal with borrowers in distress. Is there just a reflex that they should try and sell and get rid of the problem? In this State, businesses can carry forward losses basically indefinitely which can be offset against future profits. Does the sale of such mortgages usually take place at a loss and one which could be carried forward to be offset against future profits? If that is the case, does it create a perverse incentive to dispose of the problem rather than resolve them? When I ask questions, anyone can answer.