Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will ask just one final question. I wrote to the Central Bank in 2022 about the sale of properties and the banks requiring a test for mica content in relation to the blocks. At the time the Central Bank said it was not aware of that during its engagement with lenders. It is clearly now an operational policy. We have a situation where people who have mica content of 5.5% or 6% are being refused mortgages even though all of the science knows that this arbitrary number is not what one is supposed to be looking at. One needs to be looking at sulphides and pyrrhotite. People cannot get mortgages now or sell their homes but they still cannot get on the Government scheme because they do not satisfy that either. This is a consumer protection issue. Before Mr. Makhlouf disbands the consumer protection unit maybe he could ask about this issue. There are many people who cannot get a mortgage or sell their house because of this arbitrary practice by banks, which is outdated and does not follow the science. There are people who need to sell their house, cannot sell the house to anybody but a cash buyer, and at the same time cannot go on the scheme, as they do not satisfy the criteria since their blocks are considered not to be defective because of the way they are being attacked by pyrrhotite.