AIB has written-off debts of €1m or more for 83 customers in private deals since 2015, the Oireachtas finance committee has been told.

The bank has disclosed further details about its debt write-down policies after appearing before the Dáil committee a number of weeks ago.

It was revealed then how 1,900 AIB customers secured write-downs of 90pc or more.

TDs questioned the bank on how many of those customers had debts of more than €1m, in the wake of revelations that Kilkenny hurling legend DJ Carey had debts of about €7.5 million written off a €9.5 million judgment secured by the bank.

The bank did not have the figures to hand at the time and has now furnished further replies to the committee.

In total, the value of the write-downs for those 1,900 customers was €533.8m.

The overall value of AIB’s write-downs between 2015 and 2022 amounted to €3.5bn.

The bank was asked to appear before the finance committee on March 2 to answer questions about its debt policies.

While AIB said it cannot comment on individual cases for legal and confidentiality reasons, it acknowledged that recent commentary on its debt write-downs has “caused a lot of heartbreak” for customers and that a number of people have been in touch with the bank.

It follows reports of how AIB received about €1.7m from the sale of Mr Carey’s properties in Mount Juliet in Kilkenny and the K Club in Kildare, and the bank subsequently agreed a payment of €60,000 in full and final settlement of the remaining debt — amounting to a write-down of around 80pc.

AIB said it has a consistent and robust approach when it comes to helping customers in debt.

However, TDs questioned whether consistency is being applied across the board.

In the letter sent to the committee yesterday, the bank said that of the 1,936 customers who received write-downs since 2015, 1,359 were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 577 were mortgage customers.

AIB’s head of retail, Jim O’Keeffe, said during the committee hearing “there are no special deals for special people”.

“The public wants to know if we have a special deals arrangement. We do not. We deal with every case consistently and fairly.

"We have a regulator who quite correctly monitors our activity. I can categorically tell you there are no special deals for special individuals coming to AIB. I apologise for customers who have been made feel they weren’t subject to something that happens for a wider group.”

The bank said it has repossessed eight family homes since 2017 and has a “genuine and consistent approach” when it comes to dealing with customers who are in financial trouble.

During the committee hearing, AIB was asked how many sporting sponsorship deals it is involved with. The bank replied to say its primary national sponsorship is with the GAA and GAA championships.

Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell asked: “Do you know the breakdown of people who may be connected to organisations you have sponsorship deals with and how many may be involved in debt write-downs?”

Mr O’Keeffe said that while “that’s not information we could share with the committee, the set-up we have is to ensure that the processes we have for debt write-downs, or for dealing with customers in difficulty in general, makes sure we have no bias.”