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

I agree with the Deputy that everybody in the House would like it if better progress was being made by the banks. Even though, as the Deputy said, there has been crisis in the banking industry for almost six years now, when I became Minister in March 2011, we effectively had a broken banking system. The doors were open but it was barely ticking over, and demoralised staff without capital were not able to do what banks should do, particularly in regard to mortgage arrears. It has taken a long time to mend and recapitalise the banks, and it has taken a long time for new management to restore some level of morale to the banking industry. The banks were completely deflated and many of them were incapable of doing what is required to be done. It has been a long process, disappointingly long, but we want to keep them on the targets that have now been agreed by them with the Central Bank. I am in constant meetings with the banks to ensure they meet those targets.

A permanent restructuring of a mortgage, even when the arrangements are made between the parties and the banks, has to be in place and successfully operating for six months, so there is clearly a time-lag between the audit of what is a permanent restructuring and the actual arrangement being put in place.

Deputy Doherty has concentrated on the end of the six-month period but if he looks at my reply, he will see that 43% of those in arrears over 90 days have now had proposals put to them which would resolve their problem. That figure will feed through over this year and there will be a better set of statistics. The Deputy is right. He is disappointed and I am disappointed. We all know what is happening on the ground. There is no lack of will in my Department to drive the process forward and make sure the banks do not resile from the targets to which they have agreed.

See this speech in context