Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last weekend, I listened to the words of the Governor of the Central Bank as he spoke of his frustration and that of the Central Bank with regard to mortgage arrears. Mr. Honohan has played his part for the country in the negotiations, along with the Minister for Finance, in respect of the promissory notes. He expressed his frustration last weekend about the extent of engagement and decisiveness by the banks with regard to the mortgage arrears situation.

As we all know, some 100,000 people are not being allowed to play their full part in the development of our economy. The reason that cannot happen is the failure to bring about resolutions to their mortgage problems. In so far as our relationship with the Central Bank and the banks is concerned, Deputy Martin is aware that in an effort to deal with the issues we have set up a Cabinet sub-committee dealing with mortgage arrears and mortgages, and that we have now extended that to deal with banking and access to credit.

I am not happy at all with the level of resolution that has been achieved. Reports have come from the banks, particularly the two pillar banks, of decisions arrived at in respect of mortgage holders who are in distress. Many of these decisions have been to make the mortgages interest-only for a period, which is not a long-term solution to the problem. The regulator attended a recent meeting at which he outlined the proposals of the Central Bank, and inspectors from the Central Bank are now beginning to call to banks in regard to the mortgage code.

In so far as the Oireachtas is concerned, we have enacted the Personal Insolvency Bill, and all Members are aware of its complexities. The personal insolvency agency will open its doors early in the summer and I hope that between now and then the banks will realise that this offers an incentive to them to get on with the business of dealing with mortgage holders who are in distress and arrears and to work out resolutions. They must also deal with the fact that they received sufficient moneys in the recapitalisation to deal with write-downs in some cases.

The issues that were raised in the House following the Keane report have been followed through and implemented, but not to the extent one would wish, in terms of the different resolution strategies. The advice and guidelines and the websites providing information on how to keep families in their homes are important for everybody here. The mortgage-to-rent scheme was expected to deal with more than 500 cases. It is currently involved with 100 cases and a further 100 are at an early stage of the process. This scheme and other such interventions cannot be rushed for any of the parties. For example, the process involves a 60-day decision period and a 20-day cooling-off period.

I would like to believe that the focus put on this issue by the Governor of the Central Bank and the extension of the remit of public service directors by the Minster for Finance to report to the Cabinet sub-committee on what is happening will provide a new emphasis on the need to get as many of these people as possible back to being able to contribute to the general economy as quickly as possible, not only for their psychological good, but also to enable them make a real contribution to the economy.

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