People refer to the Minister's predecessor using the term "vulture lover", which is probably due to a comment he made to the finance committee about the role vultures play in society. He believed there was a role for vultures in the financial system as well. I do not share that view although he is and was entitled to it. There is a real question in respect of where the current Minister stands, however. He is the majority shareholder in that bank. Is he going to give any indication to Permanent TSB that he, as Minister for Finance, does not want these 18,000 loans sold on to the vultures and that he wants them to work down these loans and to look at other avenues?
For example, I raise again the 6,000 split mortgages. They made a bags of them. They made a mess and got the wrong advice. Under the exact same rules and criteria, one State-owned bank was able to sort it out. We took them through it bit by bit. However, the CEO of the other bank was telling us that unless it sold them on or they returned to their original contract, they would be deemed non-performing. We know that is not true. I do not run a bank. I am not paid the amount that CEO is paid, yet I and every other member of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, knows that it is not true. It is mind-boggling stuff. We cannot sit back when a State-owned bank, as a result of its own incompetence in structuring these loans, says there is no option but to sell them off. Will the Minister tell the bank to restructure them using the model that AIB used so that we can bring these 6,000 loans, which comprise about 5% of their non-performing loans, back to a situation where they are performing?