The Housing and Homelessness committee has heard that there needs to be more awareness over where people in debt can go for help.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland say they are expecting many more people to avail of their services in the coming months.

They claim that since being set up the service has struck 120,000 informal deals with creditors.

Lorcan O’Connor, Director of the ISI, has said they have the power to negotiate effectively on behalf of debtors: “The simple reality was that if I was somebody in mortgage arrears, and I rang up the bank and said ‘I’m in difficulty, I would like to talk to you and do something about it.’

“The response would simply be ‘we will phone you back when we are ready’.

“Because all of the negotiating power was on the bank’s side.”