Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

To date, we have provided various solutions that have allowed for compromise on residual debt. I agree with the Deputy that we have a challenge now in terms of the remaining customers with residual debt. More than 40,000 solutions have been provided, but at the end of an eight-year period, we still have a residual of borrowers who are in difficulty. Within that grouping we have borrowers who have no affordability, borrowers with some affordability who may be able to move on to one of the solutions, and borrowers with a short-term forbearance for whom engagement with us will work. We do not see any silver bullet in terms of solving the problem for those with no affordability, which is the key category of customers. However, the Government announced an enhancement to the mortgage-to-rent scheme at the end of last year. That scheme, as we have discussed here previously, has not had the type of traction that everyone would have hoped for because of processes and so forth. We now are now seeing customers coming through the old process and, to be frank, for the customers who are coming through, even though the numbers are small, it is a very good solution where there is no affordability. It provides some dignity in that the customer remains in the family home and the process is not public in the sense that the home is rented through the approved housing body. We have been working with a third party since that enhancement was announced to see how we can make the proposition more attractive because we feel that it has a broader remit. As we come through with the mortgage-to-rent solution, albeit in only a small number of cases, we see that we are not picking up on the residual debt so we are having to compromise on that. We are in the very late stages of that process and we expect to announce a final sign-off in relation to it soon. Once we announce that, we feel that we will be bringing something to market which recognises the fact that we have people with no affordability who are not able to deal with their residual debt.