Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Going back to what I said earlier, this is a serious, massive crisis. It was a crisis when the Minister came into office and the number of people in mortgage distress has doubled in the past two years. I want to focus on one bank in particular, AIB. The chief executive of AIB announced - I believe he is genuine - that it is writing to all 33,000 customers who are in mortgage arrears. This number does not refer to those who are in mortgage distress, because some of those people have had restructuring arrangements, although these are usually interest-only arrangements. I believe we can all agree that interest-only is not a long-term solution to the mortgage crisis; it is a short-term solution until something else changes - either the customers' circumstances change quite substantially or a more sustainable solution is found by the banks.

Perhaps the Minister can relieve my concern. Has AIB informed him what it intends to do with the 33,000 customers who are in arrears? Is it going to adopt the approach it has taken heretofore, which is basically to establish interest-only arrangements for the majority of those people, so they fall out of the group who are in arrears of 90 days and are into restructured mortgages, but paying interest only? If that is the solution from the banks five years into this crisis, it is not good enough. Hopefully, there will be a lot more. The backbone has to be more debt write-downs for people whose mortgages are unsustainable, including other options.

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