Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the issue of mortgage arrears. Professor Lane said there are 66,000 mortgages in arrears of 90 days or more. Overall, the number of residential mortgages in arrears was approximately 98,000 at the end of the last quarter. This does not include buy-to-lets. Behind each statistic is a family. I have spoken to families in which individual members have contemplated taking their own lives as a result of these pressures. Unfortunately, some people have done so. Others are struggling to get by or they are sticking their heads in the sand hoping the problem will go away. Some are making difficult choices in terms of the priorities for their families and their lives.

I am critical of the Central Bank and the banks about this. Banks are allowed to treat voluntary surrender as a sustainable solution and the European Commission says it is being applied in up to 40% of these cases. This is not acceptable. It is also not acceptable that almost eight years since the beginning of the crisis, this number of people are still in arrears. For example, if one took the principal mortgage holder out of each family, they would not fit into Croke Park and this is more than seven years later.

While Professor Lane said there was positive news in the results, the trend is that we will still be talking about unsustainable levels of mortgage arrears in five years. This affects families and it affects the banks in terms of cleaning up their balance sheets. It also has an impact on the wider economy. The Central Bank can make a fresh start with the new Governor. I do not criticise his predecessor who did a good job in many areas at a difficult time. Will the bank take a strong approach to dealing with this crisis for once and for all? It is unacceptable that this number of families is still in mortgage arrears.

We know the banks accrued their losses on commercial property because NAMA wrote them down but the write-downs for ordinary families are few and far between. I have a theory which revolves around supporting the increase in house prices to allow the value of assets to increase, therefore, helping the banks' balance sheets as people move out of negative equity and so on. The Government is involved in this. However, the arrears remain and the banks are moving in because the repossessed homes are more valuable, which is why the number of repossessions is increasing.