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

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. What he says is accurate. That is the way this is supposed to work but it is not the way it is working. To what extent can this House ensure that what the Minister of State has just intoned to the House actually happens and that every borrower gets the same chance to recover, regardless of whether he or she is in arrears? There is no sense in saying we will continue as we were and pay back as we should have at the beginning. That option has been gone for a long time. We have a different regime and we have to accommodate the needs of the customer to a far greater extent. I suggest that something be done, as a matter of urgency through the Central Bank or the regulator, to ensure that exactly that which the Minister of State indicated happens. We must ensure consumers get a fair chance to do a variety of things and do not find themselves painted into a corner whereby the response is the same whenever an offer is put forward. Incidentally, like everybody else in this House, I have put forward scores of these offers and invariably the answer has been that these are not sustainable and cannot be accepted. The lending institutions are the arbiters of what is right and wrong, which is not what is supposed to happen.

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It would be helpful if a review were conducted by one of the bodies I have suggested to identify where there are deviations from the regulations in favour of the lending institutions.

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