Mr. David Hall:

A consultative forum was involved with the Insolvency Service of Ireland that involved creditors and debtor advocates, including me, and personal insolvency practitioners. It was sent in some time ago, between eight and 12 months ago. Changes to the legislation were agreed by all parties, creditors and debtors. In parallel with anything this committee undertakes, we need to accelerate the changes made because, undoubtedly, the hand-to-hand combat that will be required in dealing with vulture funds and indeed the remainder of banks will take three strands. It is very important to remember that banks have just given up on engaging with people in long-term mortgage arrears. Some banks will still continue to do it but many people will not have received answers from banks over a period of time. They are lining up and there will be an avalanche of loan sales. The prediction will be that during the summer when people are on holidays, they will do what they have historically done, namely, make those announcements. The Insolvency Service of Ireland, personal insolvency practitioners and the Abhaile scheme all need to be reviewed and combined. There will be some good news stories from that. There will also some challenging stories from that because all is not well within that structure. The Insolvency Service of Ireland was privatised. There is no public insolvency practice. Why MABS was never converted into a large personal insolvency practitioners practice is beyond me. Our board is now considering changing our entire tack regarding informal arrangements to look at doing them through insolvency arrangements. In parallel with anything that happens, that will take time. As Mr. Joyce mentioned, only 3,200 insolvency arrangements have been done. A total of 27,000 people are in mortgage arrears. At the current rate, for all those eligible for one, it could take 100 years to resolve. Legislation needs to be adopted incorporating the changes that were agreed.