Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

Under the mortgage-to-rent scheme, the bank will have to retain property and lease and manage it. They will not welcome that. Does the Deputy think the banks want to release property to local authorities while maintaining ownership of it? Rather than the banks collecting mortgage repayments, the local authorities will be collecting rent. When one examines the individual proposals, one sees the banks are not getting a free run here. The split mortgage system, for example, will mean the banks have to amend the mortgage repayment schedules of a number of their customers. They will have to agree to new arrangements. As a result of the independent mortgage function, the cost of which the banks will have to meet, they will have to contend with more informed distressed clients. I made a point to Deputy Seán Fleming about getting 100 people with experience to represent people with impaired mortgages. When one goes through the report, one will see the recommendation that the banks, rather than the taxpayer, should be levied for the cost of this new service. Does the House think the banks are welcoming that? Of course they are not. The process is governed by the protections included in the mortgage arrears resolution process, which is overseen by the Central Bank. The mortgage arrears procedures are laid down by the Central Bank. I would like to kill another criticism by pointing out that the mortgage arrears procedures set down and applied by the Central Bank apply to foreign banks as well as domestic banks.

See this speech in context