The extent to which banks are running Ireland and Europe is clearly shown by the recently published Insolvency Guidelines and Rules, writes Dave Hughes.
The Finance Minister has dismissed a claim that as many as 35 per cent of mortgage arrears cases in Ireland are a result of strategic default where a borrower chooses not to pay their mortgage.
Buy-to-let borrowers signing the agreement are requested not to disclose any details of negotiations with the bank, including the fact that they are happening.
Mortgage customers at the bank were under-charged in recent years resulting in the shortfall that will now need to be repaid by these customers. The bank has apologised.
The Governor of the Central Bank said that banks will have to act more “ pro-actively” and “liberally” in respect of those who cannot realistically pay their mortgages.
The Troika has raised concerns about the effectiveness of the new personal insolvency law that is aimed at helping the country’s many distressed mortgage holders.
The Justice Minister has said that the personal insolvency bill will be enacted through both Oireachtas houses by 20 December and will become operative next year.
However the volume of new mortgages is still down significantly when compared with the years 2005 and 2006 – and the future abolition of mortgage interest relief is causing anxiety.
SIXTY-EIGHT PER cent of patients are unaware that they can officially complain about their hospital stay.
An Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Healthcare survey revealed that although 93 per cent of the patients surveyed were satisfied with the service they received, one in every five wanted to discuss an area of dissatisfaction but a third felt they never had the opportunity to do so.
The aspects of care that patients were most dissatisfied with included emergency department conditions and waiting times and lack of information about hospital routines, tests, medication side effects and after-care.
So today we want to know: Have you ever lodged a complaint about a hospital?