Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank Mr. Hall for coming before the committee. He put forward a solution whereby the State should intervene because it owns a number of banks and should subsidise the system by entering the marketplace and writing down mortgages or paying the mortgage in the same way as rent support. What would be the cost to the State? Does he differentiate between those who are paying, trying to pay or making no effort to pay? How many of the mortgagees in arrears that he has dealt with or is aware of are not paying because they cannot pay or are trying to or are paying to the best of their ability within their means while recognising one third of the disposable income of a household is deemed to be eligible for payment of a mortgage? How many people refuse to pay anything? Does Mr. Hall believe they should also be helped in the context of support from the State?

I refer finally to the moral responsibility lending institutions might have towards borrowers to whom they lent in the past seven or eight years and whom they are now pursuing on the basis that their loans are unsustainable. To what extent is there a moral obligation on the lenders to carry some responsibility and some of the burden for their badly advised lending?