Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe as ucht teacht os comhair an choiste inniu. I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. I am very much aware of the support that the organisations represented give to so many people. I want to recognise that. The witnesses and many of us know the real impact that the issue has on so many people. My first question is for the representatives of MABS. It was mentioned that as of September 2022 the vulture funds own over 56% of all domestic mortgages in arrears, up from 43% in March 2021 and 37% in March 2019. I must say that I find that really shocking. It is definitely a statistic that jumps out at you. Do the witnesses have any idea of what the percentage was in 2017 and 2018? I know that 2019 was also pre pandemic, but I am wondering if vulture fund ownership of domestic mortgages in arrears was something that was already increasing significantly, or if it got worse over the course of the pandemic. The organisations represented here deal with so many different people and obviously they deal with different funds, but how many funds would the witnesses say are the majority of people dealing with? I will leave it at that for now before asking more questions.