Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During the consumer impact section of last February's debate on the promissory note deal, the Minister for Finance made a point of saying it was "critically important that deposit account holders, mortgage account holders and those indebted to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC, understand that their situation following the liquidation should generally remain unchanged". I have been contacted by a number of former Irish Nationwide mortgage holders, who are now obviously involved in the IBRC, since a variation on that statement was contained in a recent reply the Minister gave to a number of Deputies from the Technical Group. The reply stated:

I am advised that the contractual terms and conditions of customer mortgages and other borrowings of IBRC will not change as a result of the appointment of the Special Liquidators or the ultimate sale of the obligations to a third party ... The continued applicability of the Central Bank Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears and Mortgage Arrears Targets Programme will depend on the regulatory status of the ultimate acquirer of the portfolio which we will not know until the sales process has concluded.

There is a complete contrast between the two commitments. The Minister said in February that the circumstances will not change, but he said more recently that the question of whether the circumstances will change will depend on who buys the loan book. People with performing and non-performing mortgages are very concerned about who might ultimately buy these loan books and the changes in circumstances that might arise at that time. For example, the Central Bank might afford a lack of protection to some of the entities that might purchase loan books. I will come back in on other aspects of this matter after I have heard the Minister of State's reply.

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