Reports in the newspapers today suggest that the AIB faces a mortgage time bomb by virtue of the fact that staff facing redundancy owe the bank a total of €2 billion in mortgage debt.
Over the last few days, the Taoiseach has admitted that the government has failed to deal with the question of distressed mortgages, perhaps now the situation in AIB will force its hand.
Over the last number of years in this office we have come across a number of decent individuals who have made sensible suggestions to the banks regarding their arrears and the sale of property in negative equity, in the vast majority of these cases inactivity on the part of the banks has meant that some people were denied the opportunity to at least try to make a new start, along with dealing with prior debts.
Where is the moral hazard in helping people who may have made mistakes in the past to make a new start?