Professor Patrick Honohan:

Our view on the legislation, as I mentioned, is favourable. It is needed. Certainly, in some cases it is definitely too complex for one bank to work on. We think the banks should still be doing the engagement with the customers who are in difficulty to sort them out before they need to have recourse to this elaborate procedure. In fact, as the committee will be aware, the legislation provides, speaking loosely, that there has to have been a six-month engagement period between the bank and the borrower and that is to allow both of them to sort the matter out.