Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and I thank our guests for coming before the committee. I have missed some of the earlier interaction but have read our guests opening statements and I have been briefed. Unfortunately, I was at another engagement.

I wish to tease some matters out and if I am going over ground already covered, I can look over the transcripts, which I will do in any event. We can skip over matters if the answers have already been given.

Obviously, there is much deep concern and anxiety among borrowers at this point in time as we see interest rates increasing and different financial institutions passing on those interest rates in a non-uniform way. For the most part, what are known as the vulture funds, the institutional funds or the non-bank lenders, whatever version of name one wants to call them, have, in the main, passed on those interest rate increases. These are the ones which they are not only obliged to because of tracker loans, but also in respect of variable rates. It is a very significant worry that families are expecting to see another increase come 16 March, just in time for St Patrick’s Day. It is a horrible gift to be handing to them, to tell them that their mortgage is going up again, given the comments of former Governor , Philip Lane this week that there is more pain to come.

In all of this we are asking how do we deal with this issue. I have very strong feelings and views in respect of the fact that 113,688 mortgages are held by vulture funds in the first instance. This is something that should never have happened. I sat in this or perhaps the next room and said very clearly that selling long-term products for one’s family home to entities which have short-term interests is a recipe for disaster. That disaster is being visited on family after family as they are receiving their fourth or fifth letter to tell them that their interest rate is going up. Unfortunately, they are likely to get a sixth and seventh letter before the year is out.

MABS mentioned that it has direct involvement with individuals who have distressed mortgages with vulture funds and with other lenders. I am interested in the comments made by Ursula Collins, the South Munster MABS regional manager, that vulture funds and credit servicing firms which manage the loans should be forced to offer fixed rates. She suggested that a 3% rate would be a reasonable rate of return, given that these mortgage loan books were bought at a discount.

When I am engaging with individuals whose loans were sold the vulture funds, the one thing they say is that they cannot fix the loan rates. In case anybody is watching, I have letters here from people who would had split mortgages with Permanent TSB since 2014 and have not missed one single penny of a payment in nine years. Their loan was sold on because Permanent TSB made a hash of how they split the mortgage, and it was deemed to be non-performing, even though the loan was being met. Now those individuals are paying thousands of euros more.

As indicated by Ms Collins, is it the view of MABS that these funds should be offering fixed rates? Has there been any engagement with the Central Bank in that regard?