Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We now have two different standards of protection for Irish mortgage holders who took out a mortgage from an entity in Ireland regulated by the Central Bank in respect of their family home. We are not discussing investment properties but family homes. We now have a vista in which we have two different standards of protection. If one is a customer of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB or Ulster Bank, one has the full protection of the code of conduct on mortgage arrears and recourse to the Financial Services Ombudsman. However, if one had taken out one's mortgage with the former Irish Nationwide, one will now have a completely different standard of protection which is entirely discretionary and can be removed at any time by the new holder of one's mortgage, if that ends up being an unregulated entity. The issue is that even if the funds say they are compliant, a dispute may arise. If one is in difficulty with one's mortgage and the fund says it is complying with the code of conduct and offering various restructuring options, to whom does one turn to if one disagrees? One cannot go to the Central Bank, which has nothing to do with it and one cannot go to the Department of Finance, which also has nothing to do with it. One cannot go to the special liquidator, which will have got its fees and be gone. Who do people turn to? They have nowhere to turn. That is morally bankrupt and completely unacceptable. It is as much a political issue as it is one for the special liquidator. Even with the voluntary compliance that these funds say they will adopt, what will happen if they sell on the mortgage book? That is what they do. They will not necessarily work out each of these mortgages for the next 15 to 20 years. They may well sell this on. That commitment will be sold on with it and will be gone. Has that issue been discussed?