Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of that and I also had the highest regard for him personally. However, we often discussed these issues privately and away from politics and to be perfectly honest, I must state bluntly that €319 million simply has been given to the banks, as opposed to seeking a resolution process. I acknowledge the resolution processes have been slow in getting under way but they are now under way. Resolutions must take place and the object of the resolution process is to help to keep families in their homes, that is, in ordinary residential family homes. I am highly confident that this will happen. It is a new process for Ireland because thankfully, we never have had this kind of bank crash previously in our history. However, the process has started and as Senator Healy Eames noted in respect of Professor Honohan, he is pushing the banks. Moreover, as Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan is independent in the performance of his duty and has a seat on the governing board of the European Central Bank. As for what the troika is suggesting we do when it asks for more activity, I am afraid it actually is asking for a faster resolution process. The approach in Ireland has been to work out all the different elements of the issue and then to go at it. My hope is that over the four years during which the supplement will be phased out, more funding will be put in, for instance, to the alternative solutions such as mortgage to rent and other solutions with which the local authorities are assisting because at present, the Government is merely sending money straight to the banks. I can give Members chapter and verse on how this is not particularly assisting people who unfortunately are in this position. It also is preventing them from getting back.