Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Banking Sector in Ireland (Resumed): Allied Irish Banks

4:00 pm

Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

I would like to cover a couple of points. I believe we have been very proactive and were out very early in terms of recognising we needed to compromise on debt. There are, as the Deputy mentioned, some latecomers to the game in relation to looking at buy-to-lets and so forth, but that proposition was available from us over recent years. Otherwise we would not have resolved it. It is something that is being provided by others in relation to specific asset classes like buy-to-lets, whereas we would have operated it right across the board. The proposition that the third party is bringing forward recognises that piece around the residual debt. Built into that proposition, as it stands today, is the recognition that part of the proposition will be to say to the customer that the residual debt would be compromised.