Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I hope the heartfelt words of the Tyrrelstown residents will be listened to by all members today. My daughter goes to school in Tyrrelstown. I know the residents all very well as I live beside the estate in question. Regarding the frustrations expressed by Charlie Cleary, this is an area that has been badly underserved by the State. It is an area of 2,000 homes, all in quite close proximity. It is the kind of high-density living that everyone was told we needed during the boom. The pitch referred to is the only outdoor sporting facility in the area. Imagine a large town anywhere else in the country limited to using such a facility. There is not yet one council-provided facility because the same developers who got these houses acquired by the vulture fund did a strange deal with the local authority. The people in Tyrrelstown are not asking for handouts but they have been badly served in terms of facilities, playing pitches and so forth. When I was on the council, we constantly had to campaign for facilities.

How did this all happen? This is relevant to some of the other discussions this committee has had about the vulture funds. The link between the vulture funds and the residents here is Beltany Property Finance, the Irish subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, which has bought these units. The Government is not neutral in this. It knew quite well that all of these portfolios were being bought up but did nothing about it. It is not an accident that this happened or that it happened behind anybody's back. Beltany spent €760 million buying portfolios in Ireland between March 2014 and March 2015. The largest portfolio was from IBRC, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. The Government had to know because the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Department would have been kept regularly informed of what was being sold. Up to €89 million was paid to Ulster Bank, which owned these loans.

The reason this is relevant is because Goldman Sachs has a relationship with the Government on several fronts. It has been commissioned by the Government to investigate banks and all sorts of other matters.

We must recognise that it was Government policy to have all of these things dealt with quickly. We see the human effect of it here. It is not that I love the native Irish developer or capitalist - I do not - or that I have any special affinity with them. However, as we have heard, the difference is that in one fell swoop, 40 people can get eviction notices and be pressured to leave an area. Some people have already left because they were so afraid. One family has gone up the road to Phibsboro and is paying €2,000 in rent. Another family that has been in emergency accommodation for months left another property - that was owned by a bank - right beside where the others live. That family is in emergency accommodation and that will be the fate of these people if we allow it to happen. This is not accidental.