Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week thousands of Irish Nationwide mortgages were sold to two US debt firms, Loanstar and Oaktree. We are told the firms bought mortgages that were in arrears. I presume that is because they believe they will get most of their profits from families whose mortgages are in arrears. We do not know the discount at which the loans were sold, but there are a lot of things we do know. We know that sales of this type around the world typically attract discounts of 70%. A mortgage of €250,000 would be sold for approximately €75,000. We know the special liquidator did not ask Oaktree or Loanstar for a binding commitment on adhering to the CCMA. We know there will not be oversight of their voluntary commitments. We know the families were not allowed to bid on their own mortgages. The Minister cited a PwC report on this but he refused to release the report to the Dáil. We have since received a copy of the report from the special liquidator. The Minister has stated that neither he nor any of his officials has had access to the report.

The end of the report is quite interesting in that it shows the criteria used to disallow the families from bidding for their own mortgages. What we know from those criteria is that the welfare of these tens of thousands of men, women and children was explicitly excluded from any consideration. Worse than that, we know that when I asked the Government if it would pause the sales process to see if we could find a process that allowed the families to bid and return the same or more money to the State, the answer from the Government was, "No." In short, the Government has sold these men, women and children down the river.

I have met some of the families whose mortgages have just been sold to Lone Star and Oaktree. These are people who could have refinanced their mortgages at whatever discount has been given to these US debt firms but now will not, and many of whom will end up being evicted. What does the Minister say to these tens of thousands of men, women and children? What does he say to a family whose mortgage of €250,000 has just been sold to a US debt specialist for €75,000? How does the Minister explain to them that their interests were in no way considered in deciding not to let them bid on their own mortgages?

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