Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I wish to share time with Deputies Mattie McGrath, Stephen Donnelly, Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Shane Ross. I wish to follow from Deputy Stanley's contribution and I support the motion. I refer to the incident which took place this morning in Mountrath, County Laois. I stood with Mr. Lee Wellstead and 30 other people at his gate not long ago when the deputy county registrar appeared at his home. At that point the deputy county registrar walked away. However, this morning a reasonably large force of Garda arrived there and sealed off a country lane leading to the home of Mr. Lee Wellstead and his young daughter. Fortunately, Mr. Wellstead and his daughter were not there when this occurred. According to neighbours, gardaí kicked in the front door, forcefully gaining entry to the property. Mr. Wellstead and his daughter were evicted - let us not use dishonest phrases such as "repossession" - from their family home this morning by the county registrar and the Garda on behalf of Ulster Bank, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, RBS, owned, in turn, by the British State. Where has the nation come to when the Garda acts as eviction bailiff for a British State-owned bank? Have those involved forgotten our history, our people and our past? Why were the Garda present? Was some threat posed to the deputy county registrar? Is it the job of the Garda to act as bailiffs' assistants just as the Royal Irish Constabulary did during the Land League agitation? Furthermore, has any banker had his front door kicked in by the Garda in this county? No, yet this man and his family have been subjected to this treatment this morning. It is outrageous that this could occur in this day and age.

Senior staff at Ulster Bank agreed to meet me and Deputy Clare Daly this week in response to a letter we wrote on the case of Mr. Wellstead. We were in the process of arranging the meeting when this outrageous action took place this morning. Would it not have been a matter of courtesy and respect on the part of the bank towards two elected Members of Parliament to have stayed its hand until the meeting took place?

Serious legal questions arise. In this case the repossession order was granted not by a judge but by a county registrar. A case is due before the High Court in April challenging the right of sheriffs, county registrars and courts below the High Court to grant repossession orders. My understanding is that property valued above €36,000 should not be dealt with in this way by county registrars.

Once this man missed his first repayment within 18 days Ulster Bank foreclosed on his home. Although he made an attempt to pay moneys to the bank, it refused to accept the move. Where are we living? Why is this occurring? We should be outraged and horrified and we should stand up and bang our fists on this issue. This should not happen again and it should not have occurred this morning.

I demand that the Government move swiftly to try to introduce insolvency legislation. I do not believe that legislation goes far enough and my colleagues and I will try to intervene to attempt to tighten it up. The key issue is the write-down of debt in this country. The country will face economic strangulation over the next period and this is a key issue that must be addressed.

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