Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We are trying to unravel the difficulties in the banks which the previous Government caused. This small country suffered a world class catastrophe.

The Government's objective is to keep people in their homes. Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised a worrying case of an individual who has been receiving mortgage interest supplement for two years but is being treated badly by the banks. I want to see a change which makes the banks engage with their customers. We have devoted more time to protecting people's family homes than any other issue. Thus far we have created a number of new products, including mortgage to rent, which will allow people to rent their family homes where their capacity to repay their original mortgage is not sustainable. As the Constitution, which was designed by Fianna Fáil, offers strong protections for property rights, this issue is taking time to resolve. The object of the exercise is to protect the family home.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh referred to a problem with the mortgage interest supplement. Almost 60% of people in receipt of mortgage interest supplement receive it for 12 to 24 months and up to 72 months. It is becoming apparent that in many cases it is very hard for people to go back to work because they do not have an alternative structure that would give them long-term security regarding their family home. They fear that if they leave the mortgage interest supplement scheme they will actually lose that and therefore they will not be able to go back to work. That is a problem we are trying to address by developing other longer-term products such as mortgage to rent and others that help people keep their homes.

The Fianna Fáil Deputy wants the code of conduct on mortgage arrears to be put on a legislative footing. It is a pity that he never addressed that issue before. He is a member of the Committee on Public Accounts and he will know that all of the financial institutions have signed up to the code of conduct on mortgage arrears. If the Deputy is now suggesting as seems to be the case that the financial institutions are ignoring it, refusing it or denying it, he should state which institutions are doing so.

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