Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Mortgage Restructuring: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]

 

7:45 pm

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I made the point many times in the previous Dáil that Government housing policy was market-driven rather than based on the right to housing and on meeting the social need for accommodation in Ireland. Sinn Féin, as well as other progressive voices, including some from the Labour Party benches when in opposition, were making those points long before the property bubble was allowed to inflate and inevitably to burst. If the demand for a real and effective State housing policy had been listened to we could have avoided the worst of the economic collapse. We would have seen the construction of quality and well-planned local authority housing on a wide scale, a control of house prices and a more diverse economy not over-reliant on the construction sector. We would have seen affordable housing in the private sector and mortgages that did not burden people from the start of their working lives to the grave. All appeals for a sane, sensible and fair housing policy were, the Minister of State is correct, ignored by three Fianna Fáil-led Governments. The results are all around us today, including economic collapse, massive toxic bank debt, widespread mortgage distress, a dire shortage of local authority housing and severe hardship for many tenants in the private rented sector.

The Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, as Labour Party leader in December 2008, put forward a comprehensive Private Members' motion in the Dáil, which was in many respects similar to the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion we are debating tonight. It noted "the failure of the Government to honour the commitment contained in the programme for Government to expand delivery of social and affordable housing options to meet the needs of 90,000 households." Two years of this Government in office, what do we find? As stated in this motion, since 2011 this Fine Gael-Labour Party Government has cut spending on housing by 19% to €585 million, leaving local authority housing desperately under-funded, resulting in 98,318 families on waiting lists for local authority housing in this State, which is a significant increase on what pertained only a few short years ago.

To address this crisis Sinn Féin is asking the Government to develop a plan to commence the building of at least 5,000 housing units by the end of 2013, with a further 4,000 houses to be built by the second half of 2014, including the use of social housing bonds to fund these projects. We are not asking the Government to go as far as the Labour Party motion of 2008, which sought the construction of an additional 10,000 social housing units each year for three years. The sad fact is that this Government is continuing with the housing policy of its predecessors. A different era requires a new policy, which has not been forthcoming from this Government so far. I add the words "so far" because I do not deny or doubt the Government's sincerity in wanting to see this issue addressed. I genuinely hope the situation will change.

A new drive for social housing is essential. Equally essential are comprehensive measures to address mortgage distress. Nobody in this Dáil, who genuinely represents people, can be blind to the reality of mortgage distress in this State. Masses of people have been left with the toxic legacy of the inflated property bubble. This Government has taken minimal action to alleviate the problem. On the contrary, it proposes heaping debt upon debt with its inequitable family home tax. I strongly urge the Government to undertake the measures outlined in the Sinn Féin motion, including the removal of the veto given in the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 to lenders over proposed insolvency agreements; to prioritise the maintenance of the family home in any agreements dealing with residential mortgages; to provide in the legislation for the independent adjudication and enforcement on mortgage distress cases, including the possibility of write-downs on portions of the mortgage debt, as well as other options such as debt-for-equity swaps, mortgage-to-rent and short selling when reaching mortgage restructuring agreements; and to take more direct action with the Central Bank to force lending institutions to adopt a more proactive and lender-friendly approach to the mortgage crisis. I do not care who pulls their hair out: I am past that point.

The taxpayers of this State are bailing out banks and bondholders to the tune of billions, in return for which all hard-pressed mortgage holders are getting is zilch. It is time, and long past time, that this Government acted like a Government for the people and called the banks to account. I genuinely believe it must recognise the need for this to be done.

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