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

The Deputy is expressing a very narrow view of profitability. It seems to me that if a lending institution has a mortgage in arrears, for the period of the arrears it is losing a lot of money from the original contract position. I am not sure what Deputy Donnelly is saying about profits. The restructuring should help both parties, the borrower and the lender, and it should arrive at a new position which is sustainable. I cannot see where the argument arises that this leads to extra profits for the bank, unless the Deputy is arguing that when the mortgage is in arrears, its saleable value is so low that only that amount should be realised by the bank-----

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