Coalition urged to scrap lenders’ childcare power

The Government is under pressure to scrap the provision in the personal insolvency guidelines that lets banks ask people to quit their jobs in mortgage writedown deals.

Reassurances by the Taoiseach that nobody would be forced to give up work do not go far enough, according to the National Women’s Council, which said there was “huge anxiety among families”.

It followed a day of confusion after Enda Kenny told the Dáil that the guidelines “will not have a condition that anybody — man or woman — be required to give up a position”.