‘83 people received write downs of over €1million and over 90%,’ says Tóibín

Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has revealed that AIB has delivered write-downs to 83 people of over €1million and over 90%.

The information was contained in a reply to the Finance Dáil Committee today to questions posed by Deputy Tóibín and other members of the Committee arising from the DJ Carey revelation.

“83 people received write downs consisting of values of over €1million and over 90% of their total debt,” Deputy Tóibín said.

“This cohort of people account for 0.05% of the 150,000 people who received some deal or support from AIB due to debt distress.

“The experience of these people is unique.

“They are clearly in a special category.

“They are outliers in terms of what the vast majority of people had to go through at the time.

“Most people in debt distress were lucky to get a term extension, a reduced repayment break for a year or two or maybe even a parking of a small proportion of the debt.

“Indeed many families has to pare back core spending such as health insurance to meet repayments.

“Its important for AIB to indicate why this small cohort were so special.

“Why were they treated differently.

“The total cost of the write down to the 90% rewrite down cohort was €533.8million.

“This is a big chunk of money for a bank that was majority owned by the state and who had at the time Public Interest Directors nominated by the Government.

“I believe that the bank needs to shed more light as to what differentiated these 83 cases from the experience of the vast majority.

“AIB has more questions to answer”.