Sir, – Simon Carswell (“Banks urge Coalition to put €1m cap on debt write-offs”, Business, April 4th) repeats an incorrect claim which has previously been made by the Irish Banking Federation when he says no other country includes mortgage debt in non-judicial debt settlements for insolvent individuals. That is simply not the case. It is not common, but Norway successfully did so in the 1990s, where it had a non-judicial debt settlement process for all debt, including secured debt. If the non-judicial process did not succeed, then there was independent adjudication by their courts.
The reality of Ireland’s personal debt crisis is so bound up with mortgage debt that any attempt to solve the problem without including secured debt is doomed to failure and will not help Ireland’s society or its economy. – Yours, etc,