Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

While I welcome the opportunity to speak on this crucial issue, I would have preferred if we had a little more to talk about. I welcome the Minister of State's comment that we must work on this collectively and leave no stone unturned. Anyone who has paid attention to the pressures facing ordinary people across the State as a result of the devastating impact of the mismanagement of our economy and the gross excess, speculation, gambling and crookedness knows that the problems caused by negative equity and distressed mortgages are rife. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and tens of thousands of couples and families are under immense pressure to pay their bills as the cost of living increases. Utility bills are on the rise and professional fees show no sign of abating. It is incredible to think that many families in this day and age have to choose between food and heat or between rent and school lunches. This House has a lot to answer for.

Our thoughts are with the Aviva workers who received the terrible news of massive job losses yesterday. Many of them will join the 450,000 people on the dole queues, with no real option for future gainful employment in the current climate. The chief executive officer of Aviva has said there is a culture of entitlement in this State. In this Chamber yesterday, the Taoiseach as much as agreed with him. According to the Taoiseach, the issue is one of competitiveness and the cost base. For me, for Sinn Féin and, I am sure, for the most of the Aviva workers, it is a clear case of a big multinational jumping ship to increase already handsome profits, with a shameful lack of consideration and respect for its dedicated workforce to boot. It is impossible to ignore the real possibility that many of the workers are facing into the harsh reality of bill prioritisation and corner cutting. Many of their counterparts are already experiencing this reality. The stories we hear in this regard are numerous and varied, but similar in many ways.

We should recognise that the issue of mortgage distress is in many respects a generation game, as David McWilliams might say. The people who are worst affected by mortgage distress are those who were most vulnerable in the first place. When many people in their late 20s and early 30s reached the stage in life where they were in gainful employment, getting married, starting a family and looking for and purchasing a home, it happened to be around the peak of the market. We remember the push to get on the property ladder and the famous suggestion that there would never be a better time to buy. It was suggested that those who thought this was some sort of crazy bubble should consider taking their own lives. That is what the leaders of this State and its industry and business champions led people to believe. The same demands were made by the Government of the day and most of the Opposition. Where are they now when lives are being devastated, families are being torn apart, hundreds of thousands of people are on the dole and almost as many are emigrating? I am sure every Deputy in this House has experience through representing constituents, if not personal experience, of the real human cost of this crisis. This Government promised solutions for the worst affected people. Unfortunately, we have yet to see them.

The report of the interdepartmental working group on mortgage arrears is simply that - a report. It has no real bearing on the lives of ordinary people. More importantly, it does not provide any real solutions. Incredibly, it suggests that much of the management of the mortgage crisis should be decided on by the banks. This should not be surprising, given that the analysis was drawn up by 17 civil servants and five bankers. Elements of the report could be part of a meaningful solution to this increasing problem. My colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, has outlined our position in this regard. We will continue to play a constructive role in the process of dealing with this crisis. Sinn Féin's position is grounded in fairness and sustainability for the lender, the borrower and the taxpayer. It is focused on maintaining the family home, providing appropriate alternatives, ensuring debt sustainability and sharing the burden.

Like many Deputies, I feel that if my constituents gave me a mandate for anything in February, it was to address this crisis. It must be acknowledged that it is not just a crisis of jobs or unemployment, although these hugely significant contributing factors need to be addressed too. It is also a problem of a failed housing strategy. It is a legacy problem. Sixty miles up the road from here, there is a mature infrastructure to deal with personal and corporate bankruptcy and indebtedness. The system in this State is so inefficient, ineffective and insufficient that it has stopped. It is a problem of decreasing wages and increasing living costs. The simple maths of income and expenditure on a household by household basis mean intervention is essential. It is a problem of personal debt. As MABS pointed out yesterday, many people have expensive credit card and other loans to repay as well as mortgages. The numbers do not add up. There is only so much people can give.

That the powers that be in the troika gave us a clean bill of health today says a lot about the criteria they use. It is obvious they have no understanding of the human cost of the memorandum of understanding. While we direct funds away from people and into banks to keep the troika happy, rather than in any attempt to fix the real economy, ordinary people are caught in the cross-fire. In many cases, the proposition is untenable. I am familiar with people who cannot meet their monthly repayments and are in negative equity of anything up to €250,000. I am sure there are probably cases where it is more. I know parents of young children who have lost their jobs, or at the very least have taken a substantial pay cut. They have no flexibility. They cannot get work because there is none. They cannot move because they have a millstone around their necks, and to what end?

I would like to highlight the case of the recently unemployed young parents of a small child, who are in debt to the tune of €200,000. The banks might as well be looking for €200 million off this couple as they do not have it. They could take absolutely everything they have for the next 40 years and they still would not be able to repay the money. They will destroy them as active contributors to the real economy and their lives in the process. To what end? We have seen an increase in the number of suicides, in the incidence of alcoholism, domestic violence and mental illnesses due to stress as people struggle to cope with the effects of this crisis. Every one is crying out for our help and they want us to provide solutions. They do not care for political point-scoring or one-upmanship.

The Fine Gael-Labour Party programme for Government promises solutions, but efforts to date have resulted in very little. It is time for prompt action, as words and reports are not enough. This report from the interdepartmental working group on mortgage arrears is way off the mark in dealing with the crisis. Some of the recommendations made may form part of a comprehensive strategy to deal with the problem of mortgage distress but work to see such a strategy implemented needs to begin immediately. It needs to consider the ideas of others and deliver real and meaningful solutions for ordinary people.

See this speech in context