John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Yesterday I met a woman - she was not from my constituency - who had a thick file and was well versed in the world of finance. She told me that she had failed to get to anyone within one of the main banks to influence it in the context of a decision in her case. She was in her tenth year of trying. I come across a lot of such cases.

Some people quickly ignore that and say they are cranks or they are mad or whatever, to discredit the individual. The number of cases I am coming across is increasing. Hence the purpose of Deputy Doherty's Bill. That is not the only Bill. There were several other Bills all trying to do the same thing, all responding to the cry from people around the country for further protection. If the protection was as good as Mr. Sibley describes, these Bills would not be coming forward. The answer is always the same.

I want to move to the right to negotiate with the bank because this is critical in the context of Deputy Doherty's Bill. The banks are not engaging in the way they are pretending to. Too many people are telling us the same story about the lack of engagement for it to be true that they are engaging. They are, therefore, not engaging the way they should. What is wrong with forcing every bank to work out a sustainable position for the loans where they can? In the context of that right for an individual to work out the loan, why do the banks not do that? They do not use the full extent of the options they have.