Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said in my initial reply neither the Department of Finance nor the Central Bank has any statutory power to direct lending institutions on the interest they charge on any particular mortgage. Debate, however, is always worthwhile and if there is to be a debate at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform the appropriate invitations should be issued to the lending banks and to the organisations that provide mortgages. The committee can ask them if they are linking trackers with variable rate mortgages and what is their future plan.

The Government has set out its plan for dealing with impaired mortgages. That is pretty well known now because it was announced in great detail and already we can see from the 8,000 offers made by AIB in the first quarter of this year that the plan is being put into effect. It is of much shorter duration than that suggested by the Deputy.

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