Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

Ireland is facing a massive jobs crisis. Thousands of jobs are being lost every week. Some are being lost because Ireland is no longer competitive and the difference in wage, transport, telecommunications and energy costs explains succinctly how we recently had 1,900 redundancies in the Dell plant in Limerick.

The chairman of the jobs task force set up by the Government after the Dell announcement, Mr. Denis Brosnan, has estimated that 50,000 persons will be unemployed in the Limerick region by Christmas. The Taoiseach has estimated that 450,000 people will be unemployed nationally by the end of this year. Yesterday, the head of the OECD, Mr. Angel Gurria, estimated that unemployment in the 30 most advanced OECD countries would swell by approximately 23 million persons this year, which he described as "by far the largest and most rapid increase in OECD unemployment in the post-war period, which is rapidly turning into a jobs and social crisis".

The misery of joblessness is appalling but if, as a consequence, one loses one's house as well the misery is turned into a personal and a family disaster. The Government must act to ensure that house repossessions are minimised. Every decision the Government takes in the budget on 7 April must be measured against its effect on jobs and rejected if it does not pass the jobs test. People will still lose their houses, however, and the Government must take explicit action to support home ownership and forestall foreclosures to give people time to get back to work and maintain their homes.

In its recent recapitalisation arrangement with the banks, the Government secured commitments from them to provide a moratorium on repayments for unemployed persons. This is welcome in so far as it goes but it only applies to the three main banks. I know of one mortgage broker who has been arranging loans for people with 17 different finance companies. Government agreements with Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank are welcome but what about the 14 other finance companies that are taking people to court to foreclose on their mortgages?

Today's The Irish Times illustrates what is happening in the High Court. As reported in yesterday's High Court, IIB Homeloans repossessed a property in Tullamore, County Offaly. Later in the morning, three further possession orders were granted to IIB Homeloans. One of the properties was in County Clare. The court heard that the defendant couple had attempted to sell their property for some time but without success. They had a mortgage of €220,000. The arrears were €13,483 and the total balance was well in excess of the value of the property by the time the court proceedings took place.

Later in the day a repossession of a home in County Kildare by Start Mortgages took place and the judge, in handing down the order, said that he was seriously concerned that the property was still not worth €400,000, the value attributed to it when the mortgage was raised. Later in the day a repossession order was granted to Leeds Building Society after the court had heard that no mortgage repayments had been made on the loan since it was drawn down, and so on.

This is the story every week in the High Court where repossession orders are given. They do not involve Allied Irish Bank Bank of Ireland or Anglo Irish Bank but the multiplicity of other lending agencies that have been active since the Celtic tiger took off. I know one broker who has given out mortgages sourced at 17 different lending agencies.

Some months ago in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown announced that a six months moratorium would apply to all persons in difficulty with their mortgages and that a two year period where interest payments would be suspended would also apply to persons unemployed. The Government of the United Kingdom would underpin this arrangement but the two years would be added on at the end of the mortgage period when the individual would get back to work. The 30 year mortgage, therefore, would become a 32 year mortgage but there would be a two year gap in the middle. That is reasonable, and the Government here should follow that example.

MABS should be allowed to retain persons who have the skills to renegotiate mortgages. That could be done on a case by case basis. It could be paid for on a no foal, no fee basis, with a few hundred euro per mortgage renegotiated, but MABS, despite its excellence, does not have the skills to renegotiate mortgages. That should be done, and it is included in the motion before the House.

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