Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

We all know that one of people's most terrifying fears is the fear of losing their homes. We know this is true from our meetings with people in our constituencies. We have a duty to protect these people and we will do that. I welcome this timely debate and thank Deputy Ciarán Lynch for raising the issue. The debate is occurring in a context when many people are extremely depressed and worried about the level of debt they accrued during the boom years, money that was lent recklessly by the banks. Many people who built big houses have now lost their jobs and are having great difficulty repaying their mortgages. People who built more modest homes have also lost jobs and are in trouble.

There are many different types of debt, including personal and mortgage debts. We know from the Law Reform Commission that in 1995 the ratio of household debt to disposable income stood at 48%, a staggering statistic. However, now in 2009 this has risen to 106%. We have gone from being 17th on an international league table of personal indebtedness to fourth, which is extraordinary. We must blame the reckless attitudes of some banks and mortgage providers for this. The problems being experienced in recent years have not helped. There is nothing new in that. All these things are cyclical.

There is much anecdotal evidence that approaches to people in financial difficulty by some banking personnel have been crude and extreme. We know the banks lent fast and furiously, but when the customers or clients got into trouble, the banks hounded them for gross repayments. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs was given an excellent presentation some weeks ago by a financial adviser named Liam Croke. He provided many examples of banks and mortgage providers who told people they could not get help or make different financial arrangements, such as facilitating reduced payments, until they had gone into arrears. That is a nonsensical approach that must be stopped. A thread running through many of the cases he mentioned was that banks and mortgage providers were threatening and extreme with customers but adopted a far more conciliatory approach with financial advisers and third parties. I do not stand for that and we should not stand for it.

Last night the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, said the number of repossessions had not increased dramatically and that sub-prime lenders were involved in the majority of such cases.

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