Mr. Edmund Honohan:

You cannot do that. The banks are entitled, constitutionally, to sell any property they have. You would have to compensate them if you said you can only sell it for a lesser sum or for a sum which is capped in some way. The banks have constitutional property rights too. That is always the difficulty. I always hear Deputies coming up with ideas that people can be forced to do this or that but there are constitutional rights and you would have to compensate them. That is basic.

As I have always said, the solution is for the retail banks to say, "Okay, we will buy these back. You got them at a discount. We will compensate you for a reasonable rate of interest, etc. Just give them back to us and we will now carry on with them as paying mortgages in the Irish sector." There is lots of Irish money out there.