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

The Minister has indicated that the banks have informed the Central Bank that they have met and, in some cases, exceeded the next round of targets which are pitched at 30%. However, they also told the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform the same thing. It took a great deal of digging on the part of the members of the joint committee before it emerged that 15,000 legal letters had been issued and that the process in this regard was being regarded by the banks as one of the ways in which they could reach the targets. Has the Minister informed the Central Bank of his analysis which he has highlighted publicly to the effect that the issuing of legal letters is not acceptable under the MART process?

As the Minister stated, his Department is publishing the relevant figures. I welcome this important initiative because it assists us in fully understanding what is happening. However, the figures indicate that 118,000 mortgages remain in arrears and that two thirds of them are in arrears for over 90 days. The really eye-catching aspect is that 77% of them have not been restructured. Worse again, the figures show that the number of mortgages in arrears for over 90 days which have not been restructured actually increased since August last year. Is the process working? It lacked ambition from the outset. After five years of a mortgage crisis is the Minister satisfied that 118,000 mortgages remain in arrears and that three quarters of them have still not been restructured by the banks?

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