Sir, – TSB received a €4 billion bailout paid from the Irish taxpayer (not “the government”). The problem of dead-weight debt should have been resolved years ago. Just look at Iceland.
What should happen is that each struggling loan should be reassessed, case by case, based on the customer’s current financial situation and the loan adjusted accordingly – be that lowering the rate, or extending the term, or accepting a lower payment.
There is no legal impediment to this, and the only reason it doesn’t happen is because behind closed doors the vested interests that don’t want it to happen get face-time with the decision-makers to a degree no bank customer would.
How can politicians and regulators, who sacrificed nothing during the recession, possibly be able to put in place the solutions that tackle the issue of dead-weight debt being a drag on the economy and holding back the policy process from focusing on all the other policy failures Ireland has never faced up to?
Instead of the Minister for Finance being “confident” that customers won’t be thrown to the vultures, he should do his job and find out for certain. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND FITZGERALD,
Canary Wharf,
London.