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

I have no doubt of the Minister's sincerity in wanting this issue resolved, and nobody in their right mind would want to see families that have fallen into this position being left lingering there. We are six years into a banking crisis and the Minister is in government nearly three years. I am sure that on the day he walked into his office in the Department of Finance, he would not have been satisfied if he had fast-forwarded three years and saw that only 17% of those in mortgage arrears of 90 days or more had been restructured on a long-term basis. It is a complete failure.

The Minister and the Central Bank have talked tough in the past in saying they would examine this and bring forward new initiatives. They need to start talking tough with the banks. I have been meeting with senior people in the banks. They tell me very clearly that if the Government and the Central Bank set targets, they will meet them. However, the way they are meeting them is through letters of repossession. The Minister can see from these figures, which he himself released, how the long-term restructuring is taking place, which is by way of arrears recalculation. There is no real, meaningful engagement and no urgency being sensed by the banks on this issue.

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