Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this debate which is about people. It is about taking their circumstances and the advice they were given at a particular time into account. Like a lot of others, they made a mistake during the boom. They made the wrong investment and were overloaded which resulted in their property being repossessed and sold at a value of more than €20 million. The guarantee - their family home and that of their children and their business - is now before the courts and the property is liable for repossession which will leave them homeless.

We fully accept that the matter has been dealt with by the courts. The family have gone through the system. There is a belief at home and abroad that lending institutions must get their money back, but there is no such thing as risk-free lending. It does not happen in that way. People took risks during the boom times, but that was then and this is now.

Deputy O'Connell and I have made numerous attempts to reason with the lending institutions involved. We have offered to meet them on numerous occasions, but our offer was rejected, unless we put our proposals on paper before we met anybody. That is totally unrealistic, as the Ceann Comhairle will recognise. We have offered to mediate, free of charge, to bring about an amicable solution for both the banks and the borrowers. This is not something we have done lightly. We have offered it in good faith, in the clear knowledge that a solution can be delivered. We are now in a position to offer an enhanced settlement which we will deliver to the lending institutions when we meet them.

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