Hello,
I am seriously struggling to believe that a final decision has not been made by Finance Ireland ... more likely, there has been some unforeseen delay, so Billy Kane is trying to play it safe by pretending that no final decision has been made.
It's not high value business, but providing homeloans is relatively low risk in banking terms, and there seems to be plenty of international capital available to fund such a venture. Putting a product onto the market through the broker channel is not particularly challenging, it just needs to be relatively competitive and pay a reasonable commission, and there will be take up. It could quickly help grow the Finance Ireland customer base, which increases the awareness of Finance Ireland (possibly useful, if the intention still remains to float the business in the future) and could also bring potential for cross sales in the medium to long term.