Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

One of the major issues that has arisen, and the figures regarding Permanent TSB amplify this issue, is that the capital requirements of that bank are now €4 billion. The head of that bank told us two years ago that only about 1% of its loans would be bad loans. Permanent TSB did not get involved in the speculative development lending. It was more conservative than that. It dealt with mortgages but it went mad at the end of the property boom and increased its loan book two-fold in the past three years. A huge number of people took out mortgages at the height of the boom and those mortgages are now distressed.

The Minister announced that we will give Permanent TSB €4 billion. It will plug the hole, but what about the mortgage holders? What about the people who cannot make those repayments? We already know that as of last year 44,500 mortgages were in 90 days arrears.

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