Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I also welcome the Government amendment to it.

This Government inherited a severe mortgage crisis. Too often, discussions on the mortgage crisis are dominated by facts and figures when in reality they should focus on the social problems it is causing, the untold sleepless nights and the children who will grow up listening to an ongoing battles in their homes because of the unsustainable mortgage debt and insurmountable financial difficulties placed on their families.

There has been some good news on the economic front in recent weeks, including the deal on the promissory note and the recent announcement of the sale of Irish Life. Buoyed by this good news, it is now necessary that our full focus is brought to bear on the problem of unsustainable mortgage debt. A failure to tackle this problem will allow this tsunami of misery to continue in homes all across Ireland.

We have all dealt with cases involving families faced with impossible debt who are paying a huge emotional price in terms of their daily living. I have come across a case of a man on disability benefit who lives in a house built on his parents farm, which is unsaleable as it is of little use to anyone else, in respect of which he continues to be pursued by the banks for an astronomical sum. Despite repeated attempts, the bank has failed abysmally to open any line of communication, in terms of a write-down, with this man, causing huge upset and worry for him and his elderly parents.

There is much talk of moral hazard. Many people who never took out large mortgages will find the prospect of a write-down difficult to comprehend. However, what must be communicated is the extremely high social price that is being paid daily for the alternative. No solution will be a one-size fits all panacea but some solution has to be arrived at. Many aspects of the October 2011 report of the interdepartmental mortgage arrears working group have been implemented, including the personal insolvency legislation and the mortgage-to-rent scheme. I look forward to the Central Bank's report on its expectations in terms of the banks achieving lasting solutions with mortgage customers in arrears.

Currently, our small towns and villages are being strangled by the lack of spending power of ordinary families. These ordinary families do not have any money to spend because all of their income is being taken by the banks as they try desperately to keep a roof over their heads. Until ordinary families begin to spend modest amounts of their hard-earned money in their local economy, the downward spiral will continue. Alternatively, if these people had their unsustainable mortgage debt dealt with, they could begin to live again, to make simple everyday purchases within their reach and to provide the economic lifeblood that our local towns, such as Tuam and Loughrea in my own constituency, require so urgently. Achieving this will require a sea-change in the banks. As legislators, we have the power to institute such change. It has to happen because the alternative will consign generations to the economic scrap heap.

The Irish people bailed out the banks yet there appears to be little or no recognition of this in the prevailing culture in the banks as they attempt to squeeze every cent out of hard pressed families. It is crucial that proper monitoring be put in place to ensure that the banksdonot, as they have done in the past, employ sleight-of-hand to sidestep measures designed to force them to engage with householders whose debt is unsustainable.

Another issue of great importance in relation to the motion before us tonight is social housing. Every week, in towns such as Portumna, Headford and Tuam, I encounter people who are experiencing huge difficulty in securing social housing. These people have been on the housing list for many years. It is not unusual to encounter people who have been on the waiting list in County Galway for five to seven years while all around them there are half-finished housing estates, the houses in which would make lovely family homes but are lying abandoned and unfinished. NAMA needs to work more closely with councils such as Galway County Council with a view to providing a much-needed boost, in terms of numbers and quality, to the county's housing stock.

The work of NAMA needs to be more focused on providing a social dividend as well as an economic dividend. I believe that if NAMA works more closely with local authorities in future, the authorities will be able to house people quicker, thus reducing the prevalence of people living for many years in temporary accommodation instead of permanent homes.

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