Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The protocol will go some way towards preventing it, particularly if the sub-prime lenders sign up. It is not necessary that they be part of the negotiation because it is easy to formulate a protocol with one regulatory body, which is what the IBF is.

In the first quarter of this year, there were nine repossessions of owner-occupied homes. While repossession is extremely traumatic for the families concerned, there has not been the avalanche about which people talk. Where orders for repossessions have taken place, they have not necessarily been in respect of residential homes, nor have the orders been enforced.

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