Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My last question concerns mortgage arrears. The last time Permanent TSB was before the committee was in April. On that occasion Mr. O'Sullivan said that the bank expects to repossess between 2,000 and 4,000 homes, which were mainly buy-to-lets but included some family homes as well. Let us look at the numbers in today's presentation. It is stated that there are more than 6,200 principal private residences where loss of the home is a very real prospect, with an assisted voluntary sale, voluntary surrender or legal action under way. Plus, there are 1,800 buy-to-let properties in the same category. That means there are more than 8,000 homes, three quarters of which are family homes, now in a very serious situation whereby either there is agreement for the home to be surrendered or it is essentially before the court. That is a very significant jump in numbers from where the bank expected to be a number of months ago when Permanent TSB was last before this committee.