Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I spent the morning talking to stakeholders who are involved in various parts of the mortgage crisis. They said a variety of things. They talked about the lack of transparency. Many of the debt write-downs that have already happened have non-disclosure clauses attached to them. They talked about the inconsistency of approach between the banks. Bank of Ireland was mentioned by everyone to whom I spoke, as it always is. It would be something of an understatement to say that the language they used to describe the behaviour of Bank of Ireland was unparliamentary. They spoke about the lack of co-operation between the banks. One senior lender to whom I spoke told me that many of the deals he tries to work on are torpedoed by Bank of Ireland. Even when it is a minority creditor, it refuses to co-operate with other banks when they are trying to find solutions.

The people to whom I spoke this morning talked about the red tape in the insolvency process. I understand that 46 protective certificates, five debt settlement arrangements and three personal insolvency arrangements have been issued to date. Based on the costs that have been accrued by the Insolvency Service of Ireland since it started to take applications, it can be calculated that the cost to the State of each of these measures has been approximately €65,000. It is clear that there is a great deal of work to be done. The people to whom I spoke talked about bureaucracy in other places as well. One lender in a bank told me that the compliance requirements associated with the second code of conduct on mortgage arrears are so severe and time-consuming that his team is no longer able to spend the necessary time with borrowers.

The current review of the Insolvency Service of Ireland is welcome, but it is not enough. We need a system-wide review that looks at all the parts of the system and talks to all the stakeholders, including the banks, the borrowers, the Insolvency Service of Ireland and the credit unions. This could be done in a matter of weeks. It would be very cheap. It would provide invaluable information to the Cabinet, the Oireachtas and the public. In light of the good news we have heard today, and bearing in mind the significant opportunities to address the bottlenecks that exist, will the Taoiseach consider establishing a system-wide review? Does he believe such a review would be a good idea? Will he commission a review that could report back to the Cabinet and the Oireachtas within a few weeks?

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