Mr. Brian Reilly:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for inviting the Right2Homes umbrella group to appear before it today. I hope the Chairman will forgive me if I seem a little anxious; the issues are so important to so many people. I ask the committee members to imagine what it must be like for someone appearing in a courtroom not too dissimilar to this setting. Probably for the first time, the person is appearing as a defendant attempting to protect his or her home from a bank or, worse still, a vulture fund that is here only to profit from the crisis in which many people now find themselves trapped. That scenario is the only motivation behind the proposed large-scale solution. We are looking for the political will to help make this happen and are asking all politicians from all parties to get behind the Bill.

By way of introduction, I am co-founder of Right2Homes, which is a not-for-profit organisation. I am joined on this panel today by my fellow Right2Homes director, Mr. Austin Byrne, and by Ms Sandra Daly, Mr. Michael Durkan, Ms Caroline Lennon-Nally and Mr. Jim O'Connell. Together we are representing our trustees and also the umbrella group, drawn from like-minded organisations and individual advocates, engaged in seeking legislative change and solutions to the distressed mortgages crisis. We are delighted and honoured to have been given this opportunity to address the committee in respect of its review of the Irish mortgage market and related matters as this is the focus of the proposed National Housing Co-operative Bill 2017, the details of which we will discuss today.

This committee has undoubtedly received many detailed submissions in respect of these matters so we do not propose to subject it to yet more damning statistics, alarming and shocking as they may well be. Instead, we are here to talk about a big idea, a solution to the crisis involving the related areas of homelessness, social and affordable housing and the lack thereof, and of course distressed family home mortgages. These three defining issues are joined at the hip but, for the purpose of today's meeting, we are focusing on the proposed national housing co-operative and the attendant explanatory memorandum, copies of which the committee will have received prior to today's meeting.

Some of us here today have literally put our own lives on hold to get this proposed legislation to this stage, and I doubt there is anyone in this room, or even anyone watching, who is not already acutely aware of the nightmare currently faced by many Irish families still residing in their family homes or, indeed, in buy-to-let accommodation. They live in daily fear of banks, afraid to open their hall doors or even their post, defenceless in the absence of effective legislation to protect themselves and their families from the threat of repossessions. We believe this proposed legislation can provide a tangible solution for all that.

The proposed national co-operative is designed to keep people in their existing homes through the creation of a benevolent society as outlined in the proposed Bill. It may perhaps be helpful to give the committee a short history of the events leading up to the creation of this Bill which members have in their hands today and which will soon be presented to other Members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann to debate and eventually vote on. The Chairman, together with Deputy Mattie McGrath and Senator David Norris, who joins us here today, have all committed to ensuring this proposal will see the light of day and be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas. We express our sincere gratitude to them and to the Chairman of this committee for making that a reality and for providing this tangible ray of hope for so many.

The first step in the creation of the national housing co-operative began in this very room last January following an appearance by me before this very same committee. I had received an invitation from Mr. Jerry Beades, chairman of Friends of Banking Ireland, to join him and others in presenting submissions to this committee. They had been invited to address matters related to the banking crisis. Perhaps it was down to some naivety on my part, but I was genuinely shocked at what appeared to me, back then at least, to be a distinct lack of urgency, with little or no sense of emergency about those proceedings. A crisis, by its very definition, requires urgent action, and the power to make this solution a reality resides within the Houses of the Oireachtas. What could be more important or pressing than the imminent fear of a family losing their home, a matter of life and death for some, unfortunately, and yet there I was back in January being confronted with the vista of a half-empty chamber towards the end of that three-hour submission.

I was asked afterwards by the Chairman, for whom we have the greatest respect, if I was happy with how that meeting had gone. I immediately answered "no", which led to a series of phone calls, to be fair, and which in turn resulted in an invitation from the Chairman to return the following day to discuss the views expressed. This in turn led to Right2Homes receiving an invitation from Fianna Fáil Deputy Darragh O'Brien to involve an umbrella group of like-minded advocates in drafting a Bill capable of halting the transfer of home loans from banks to vulture funds and also a Bill that would facilitate the creation of a benevolent entity to house the tens of thousands affected by distressed family home mortgages.

This is what we set about doing, and today we are proud to present to this committee, and to the people, a framework for a solution that has been carefully crafted by independent experts. These experts include the Master of the High Court, Mr. Edmund Honohan, who is here today in a private capacity, and Mr. Pat O'Sullivan, a retired fellow of the Institute of Bankers. Both have kindly agreed to join us for the purpose of this submission, which is hugely important given the serious nature of the proposal and the complexities of the proposed legislation. They will be joined on that panel of experts by Dr. Rory Hearne, Mr. Maoilíosa Reynolds, Mr. Anthony Joyce and Fr. Peter McVerry, who needs no introduction and who should be applauded for the wonderful work he does for the homeless.

We have three hugely important phrases we wish to impress on the committee and which it is hoped will help to replace the widespread uncertainty and fear with a message of renewed hope and fairness. The first is "keep people in their homes", the second is "halt the sale of loans to vulture funds" and finally, together, summon the "political will" to help make this proposal a reality.

Without any further delay, I will now ask my fellow Right2Homes director, Dr. Austin Byrne, to read Part 1 of the explanatory memorandum, which will, it is hoped, form the basis for further discussion.