Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

The threats from lending agencies have gone out right around the country to people with families who are under immense pressure.

I wonder about some of the cases that have come to me. When I was told that there were only a certain number of repossessions, I thought they could not all be in my area. When people come and tell me they saw a letter stuck on their door telling them to hand over the keys on a given date, that may not be the final order but, by God, it puts some pressure on the family concerned to try to address that matter.

On assessment of the loan applications, I always said that the local authority method was the best. When considering shared ownerships, the one point the local authorities made was that if there was even one day in the year for which the income of the person could not be accounted, they would not give the loan. They set an example that could have been followed by everybody else. However, the banks were so greedy, together with the developers and with the solicitors, that they wiped that to one side. They did not believe in that.

A man came to me who had sold the family home, a small house in Meath, and bought a house near me. When he moved, unfortunately, and sadly, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. When he came to see me, because he had to give up work to look after his wife, he wanted to apply for mortgage interest relief, which we eventually got through for him. I asked him how he got the loan and he answered that the amazing thing was that he had only to prove to himself that he could repay the loan because the guy at the far side of the counter would have given him twice what he wanted on the basis he would get a share of it. That was the standard the banks set and, suddenly, they are crying into their milk saying we are telling stories that are untrue.

I brought a chap to a social welfare hearing who had a letter from a lending agency stating that it was looking for €560 a week from him when the only income coming into his house was a social welfare payment of €400. I blame the solicitors and the banks for their lack of understanding of how this mechanism should have worked. They should look at what the local authorities did.

Where stand those who have shared ownership with the local authorities? Many of those own 75%, 60%, 50% or 40% of their house and the local authority owns the rest. Now they are not able to pay. Is the responsibility for such loans shared with the local authority or is it the case that the person is the tenant of the house on one side and the owner of it on the other? Is the local authority responsible in such cases as well? I would hope that the Minister will look at the matter and come up with a solution because there are hundreds in that position who want to know where they stand.

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