Back in the day there was a vicious form of corporal punishment known as birching. We heard about a new form of it today. AIB has a project named Project Birch. It is a plan to sell in early 2020 thousands of distressed mortgages secured on family homes. This is a majority State-owned bank. Does the Government stand over this plan? It should stop the sale. Vulture funds should be kept far away from family homes. There are alternatives. Loans could be restructured for those who might be able to pay. For those who will never be able to pay, the properties can be taken into public ownership and given to local authorities, which would mean that people could be kept in their homes knowing that they would be secure as renters. Is the Government prepared to stop the sale and keep family homes out of the hands of vulture funds?

AIB is a bank listed in the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. Therefore, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on media speculation at this stage because that is all it is.

It received loads of taxpayers' money.

This issue has been raised in the House many times. Our job is to make sure extensive protections are in place to ensure customers' contractual rights are not altered when loans are transferred from one financial organisation to another. That is what we will continue to do. It would not be appropriate for me to speculate on something in the media today.

Why would it not be appropriate?