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

The Central Bank is in charge of the prudential arrangements for lending by the banks, including mortgage lending. It has made announcements for the purpose of consultation and it has allocated a period for that consultation to take place. The 80% ceiling is a controversial announcement and people have different views on it. Different organisations are making submissions, including the Department of Finance. We will provide our submission in the next couple of days.

I do not know whether the troika raised this with the Central Bank. Its members had meetings with the Central Bank and might have raised it. There was a statement from the Commission, separately from the troika visit, saying it supported the actions being taken by the Central Bank so that Ireland would not again encounter the problems it had previously. This is unresolved, but the Central Bank is independent.

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