Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I endorse strongly Senator James Heffernan's remarks about Professor Honohan's gesture. I welcome Professor Honohan's exhortation to banks to continue with restructuring. I know he is being proactive in arranging this and that there are targets in that respect. A colleague of mine puts it to me regularly at our party meetings that we should adopt the Japanese model, expand the length of mortgages from 30 to 40 years and let mortgages be inter-generational and that that is how we should deal with a number of the mortgages in distress. I would be interested in hearing Professor Honohan's response to this as a solution to an Irish difficulty. If our clinic work is any indicator, there are large numbers and perhaps that might be the solution.