Professor Patrick Honohan:

Let us consider the case of someone who could very nearly pay his or her entire debt. Why should Bank of Ireland be placed in a position by the Central Bank of Ireland whereby it cannot collect on the debt?

It may decide the person can afford to pay the debt if it makes what might be called a baby split mortgage arrangement but now it is being told by the Central Bank that it has to give away a lot of value. It is moving away from regulation into property rights. However, I am not precluding that we could move tighter in that direction but there has been a merit of allowing a variety of standards to meet different cases and exploit different ideas in various parts of the banking system.