Mr. Lorcan O'Connor:

-----as opposed to those who say "under no circumstances ever". Prior to the committee hearings earlier this month, I would have made the point that it is in the commercial interest of creditors to engage in a PIA and all other arrangements. I will continue to be of that view. When the IVA process was introduced in the UK, initially probably all the banks were sceptical but some banks engaged to a greater or lesser extent than others. Over time they all became comfortable with the process and, generally speaking, they are now all supportive of the IVA protocol that is in place and the IVA solutions and, in many cases, they encourage debtors to avail of that solution. The reason I think that process will hopefully evolve over time in respect of all creditors, including those who were quite clear as to what their current position is, is the simple maths of it. I would give the Deputy one example of what a PIA can offer to a creditor. We often focus on the protections it can deliver for a debtor but I would focus briefly on those it can deliver for a creditor. Let us say a creditor has a mortgage of €300,000 and the PIP having examined the individual's circumstances. and applied forbearance measures around term extensions, interest rate adjustments and so on, can identify a sustainable mortgage of €200,000, the PIP would go to the individual's bank and say that he needs a €100,000 of that mortgage to be written off, to be warehoused or something done in respect of it to solve the problem. If the bank says "No" to that, that person would go to Mr. Christopher Lehane and seek to be declared bankrupt, but what would be the position if the market value of that house is €100,000? What that means is that by voting "No" to a PIA, instead of writing off €100,000 of the mortgage, the bank would have to write-off €200,000. When it comes down to the hard cold facts hopefully people realise that in certain circumstances a PIA should be supported.

We produced statistics at the beginning of the April and the numbers were very low in terms of those that had gone through the system but the trend, I suggest, was a positive, showing that the number of new cases each week and each month were increasing. We have already seen a significant move since even the beginning of April, notwithstanding the Easter period in the intervening time. We have now significantly more cases, more than 100 protective certificates, more than double the PIAs, more than double the DSAs, and a significant increase in DRNs. I think that over the next few months momentum will build and hopefully that will build confidence with all stakeholders in the process.