Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and that was outrageous. People actually believed their bankers were responsible people who knew what they were talking about and did that. I suspect there were many people who were like that and were not of the speculator variety. Certainly those people should be given a chance to restructure those debts.

I equally take the point about small businesspeople. Such a person might be a small trader with debts resulting from the business and be hit by the downturn. Particularly in areas where property values were quite high, it could plausibly have taken a person to in excess of €1 million. I still believe that €3 million is somewhat problematic because with an ordinary person, who might have a loan on his or her house, one property and even some debts to do with being a small businessperson, it could perhaps take him or her to €1.5 million. One could even argue €2 million to be safe, but €3 million seems to create - to use that difficult and often misapplied term - moral hazard. Speculators, who do not deserve any relief and who helped cause the problem that we are now addressing, should not be allowed to benefit from legislation that is aimed at people who are innocent. In that regard, €3 million is a bit hard to justify and creates moral hazard for some of these speculators.

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