Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The variation is stark. For example, on the split mortgage it is as wide as €57,000. It could not be acceptable that, depending on which bank gave the mortgage, one could be better off by €57,000 in the application of a single option on the split mortgage. It should not be reduced to how lucky one is to happen to have a split mortgage with AIB as opposed to with Bank of Ireland or permanent tsb.

The Minister for Justice and Equality said he would review the personal insolvency regime after 18 months. There have been only four cases. It has had a negligible impact on the mortgage arrears crisis. The Central Bank targets seem to have led to an attack on the mortgagee rather than the crisis. It has led to a ramping-up of legal actions and up to 13,000 legal letters have been sent. They have a terrible impact on families who receive them. That aspect needs to be reviewed.

The Minister spoke about cross-party consensus. My colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, made the point at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform that it was very worrying that 30% of Ulster Bank’s customers who were in arrears for over 90 days were involved in the legal and repossession process. Deputy Ciarán Lynch who chairs the committee has said Ulster Bank is “very, very opposed to any debt removal that is based on people remaining in their home.” The central objective of the Government as articulated in the House, to protect people in their family homes, is falling apart at the seams. The banks have a very determined focus, in response to the targets, on starting a significant process of repossession. The first bank to appear before the committee yesterday stated that up to 1,500 family homes could be repossessed and that that was a realistic prospect. Is it not time for a more fundamental review of how the Government and the Central Bank have approached this issue, with a view to making the protection of the family home the number one priority in resolving and responding to the difficulties people undoubtedly face?

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