Senior bank officials due before finance committee

Four senior Bank officials will come before the Oireachtas finance committee this week to give TDs an update on the mortgage crisis.

First up is the chief executive of Ulster Bank today, Jim Brown.

The committee will examine the bank's progress in offering sustainable deals to households struggling to keep up with their mortgage repayments.

"It's important that the banks are actually wrestled off the shoulders of the Irish public," said Finance Committee Chairman and Labour TD Ciaran Lynch.

"We need to see them working towards solutions - ones that actually see them .. Dealing with the hardships some people are dealing with in their lives."

He also said they would be looking at normalisation in the mortgage market.