Ian Guider on home repossessions: If people won’t pay, take it away

Repossession must be put back on the table if banks are to function normally

A couple of months ago, when Permanent TSB announced it was planning to offload a €3.7 billion portfolio of loans linked to 18,000 family homes and investment properties, the bank revealed that at least one mortgage customer was seven years in arrears.

I put that detail to a banker who had worked at an institution outside Ireland when asking how other countries dealt with arrears of that length. The answer I got was ...