Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said, in the case that has been made public today, which is good news for the borrowers in that case, there is a capacity to meet repayments on a smaller amount. Obviously the settlement that was reached with AIB has made that perfectly clear. It is not just a case of the Central Bank or the Department of Finance setting targets for banks. It is not just a case of monitoring what is happening. It is a case of auditing the deals that have been done to see whether they are sustainable and can stand up.

From one point of view the Deputy's request is reasonable. It is not about having a cost in doing it. My point is that it is already being done both by the Central Bank and by the Department of Finance. This is March. The Deputy should come back at the end of May or early in June and we can have a discussion about it here in the House on the basis of the monitored and audited reports, both of the Central Bank to that point and the Department of Finance, and let us see what is happening. If conclusions or recommendations come from that as to how the thing might need to be tweaked a little bit to make it more effective, we are all for that. Our interest genuinely is to see that people have these pressures released from them to allow them to get back to contributing to our economy and country. That requires the banks to meet their targets. Not only should they be monitored, but they should be audited to see that they stand up. I would be happy to share that up-to-date information at that point with the House.

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