Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this very important matter and commend the Government amendment to the motion. This motion crystallises an issue of which we are all very much aware, namely, the growing number of people who are experiencing great difficulty in paying the mortgages on their homes. The two consequences of that are, first, as they encounter difficulty in paying the mortgages on their homes that then cascades into difficulty in paying debt in other areas of their lives such as credit card debt, which results in even greater difficulty in making ends meet. The second consequence we are all aware of as constituency politicians is the huge amount of stress and personal difficulty that causes.

The reason this problem is of such concern to the House is the potential for it to become more serious resulting in more people being unable to pay their mortgages. Leaving aside the huge social difficulty and pain that it causes, it also has the ability to cause further damage to our economy and to the banks we are trying to keep secure and stable to meet the needs of the economy.

I read with great interest the motion brought forward by the Technical Group but my difficulty, and it is one of the reasons I oppose the motion, is that while I agree with the analysis put forward in the motion I could not find the solution indicated anywhere in the motion. The only line regarding a possible solution is the reference to "using whatever emergency measures are deemed necessary to reduce the unsustainable debt burden" but nowhere does the motion lay out what those emergency measures would be.

With that in mind I took time to read the contributions made by each of the Deputies proposing the motion to see if I could find examples of the measures they had in mind. In Deputy Thomas Pringle's fine contribution, and I agree with the analysis he outlined, there is only one sentence that lays out what he would do in regard to this problem. It states: "There are proposals relating to debt forgiveness, increasing the terms of loans or engaging in debt for equity swaps". It acknowledges those proposals but it does not indicate the ones that would be chosen. As I read through all the contributions, with the exception of the contribution of Deputy Stephen Donnelly, I could see an analysis of the issue but no reference to the solutions. The only solution laid down and which different Deputies commended was the idea of debt forgiveness. That issue creates huge tension because while there are currently 40,000 people who are finding it very difficult to pay their mortgages there are 746,000 people who can pay for them. Dealing with the difficulty for those people who cannot pay their mortgages will create further cost to the taxpayer and to an Exchequer and a Government that is struggling to pay for social welfare, education or health care commitments.

In terms of the course of action this Government has outlined, it is committed to putting in place a moratorium on house repossessions if it is clear that the borrower is doing all he or she can to pay the mortgage. It has also brought forward a detailed programme of action that was detailed by the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, last night which laid out the options available in that regard.

More needs to be done about this issue. The Law Reform Commission report on bankruptcy law reform is an important report containing many imaginative ideas that should be explored. Our bankruptcy laws and provisions are out of date and are quickly becoming part of the problem.

There are other new ideas such as the negative equity loan proposed by Karl Dieter. It is an interesting idea that involves putting in place a loan that would be carried forward from a property for which somebody is unable to pay that would relate only to the negative equity. Those are the types of ideas this Government should explore further with a view to finding solutions that would make a difference.

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