Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that Maura and Robert Gunn have done a huge service to many individuals who would have seen their family homes repossessed were it not for the case adjudicated upon by Ms Justice Dunne in July 2011. Many people refer to it as the Dunne judgment, but it should be called the Gunn judgment because of the individuals involved in the case against Start Mortgages at the time. That judgment was a relief for many families struggling to pay their mortgages. We know that it is not an ideal solution to rely on a loophole to protect the family home. Indeed, it has been said that the judgment let the Government off the hook and allowed them to get away with over a year of inaction.

It is unfortunate that we are now acting to remove the judgment's effect, but we are completely failing to provide the necessary safeguards for individuals and families. If this Bill was part of an overall solution to the mortgage crisis, I could try to understand the logic of where the Government was coming from. However, the facts are that this is part of a process of hanging struggling home owners out to dry. The banks were bailed out, stressed tested and capitalised at the expense of the taxpayer to deal with their impaired loans. Now, however, they are not being asked to play their role in resolving the crisis that they played a huge part in creating in the first place. Let us be clear that this Bill is about squeezing every last penny out of struggling families and then taking their homes from them at the end of that process. It is about scaring more than 180,000 households in mortgage distress and doing the banks' dirty work for them. It is about making repossessions part of life and creating a society where, once more, the banks rule and people suffer.

Last month, I made a submission on behalf of Sinn Féin to the Central Bank's review on the code of conduct on mortgage arrears. I pointed out in that submission that the review had been sought by the troika and in my view had a predetermined outcome. That outcome was to allow banks to put more pressure on those struggling to pay and to free their hand to repossess properties.

We are discussing a Bill which is the next step in the repossession dance. Sinn Féin will oppose the legislation for good reasons. In opposing it, we are also acknowledging that the Government has support to get this measure through the Dáil. We will, therefore, table a number of amendments which will protect the family home and give courts power to decide on the reasonableness of lenders' behaviour and to accept or reject that.

As it currently stands, this Bill is simply another sop to the banks. There is a general co-ordinated strategy to reduce the number in arrears, not by dealing with the core problems but by making evictions a fact of life in modern day Ireland. Since this Government came to power, the numbers in arrears have almost doubled, just like they did in the last 18 months of Fianna Fáil's rule. Now it seems there will be action at long last, but what type of action? The answer seems to be that it will be action to help the banks.

Once more, the interests of the banks are being put before society's interests. We know that this Government will not stand up for the people when bankers in State-supported banks pay themselves obscene salaries. We also know that it certainly will not stand up for the people when banks bully them with a secrecy clause in negotiations and other tactics that are being widely used.

The current situation is unsatisfactory. We need a new regime of laws and practices that protect the family home against repossession. We agree that relying on a loophole is bad law. However, as long as banks have the final say in the Personal Insolvency Act and as long as this Government will not force the banks to deal reasonably with people doing their best to pay their mortgages, then we will not support this move to make it easier to repossess the family home.

The Government should be clear that it is the Bill's intention to facilitate the repossession of family homes. That is not scare-mongering; it is a fact. I will not flinch from pointing out that such is the case. Sinn Féin has shown how a different approach is needed. We would protect the family home and empower an independent body to force banks into reasonable arrangements. This is part of our constructive solution. As the Bill is part of the Government's crumbling attitude to the banks we will use it to show how our positive alternatives to repossessions can lead to sustainable situations for many families and other sectors.

The Gunn judgment is the only protection that many households have. It is irresponsible for the Government to repeal it while not asking banks to play their part. We will move amendments to this Bill that will make it responsible. We want it to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. We will move amendments to this Bill to make it fairer and to protect the family home. That means changing the rules so that, for starters, citizens' names can be removed from the register after their application to the insolvency service.

We will insert a reasonableness test that courts can use as a guideline. This will empower sensible judges to protect the family home from aggressive, unreasonable banks. Such a test would take into account the code of conduct of mortgage arrears, how parties have behaved and the proposals made by the personal insolvency practitioner.

We would look at the potential problems in accessing a personal insolvency practitioner that some people may have. The Personal Insolvency Act is flawed in that a personal insolvency practitioner will be rewarded for taking on bigger cases, while excluding from the process smaller ones involving those struggling with debts. We will seek to extend the two-month period for which courts can adjourn a case to allow the personal insolvency to take place. The Personal Insolvency Act gives 70 days protection, yet this Bill would only give a 60 day adjournment period.

There should be a test that lenders have met the conditions of the Central Bank's code of conduct on mortgage arrears before they can move to repossess. Crucially, a lender should be required to outline to the courts the approach it will take to the residual debt in the case of a family home being repossessed.

Such amendments would move us some way towards making this Bill part of the solution. As it stands, we cannot support removing the last line of protection for the family home while banks are not being asked to contribute to the solution. We all know more than 180,000 households are in mortgage distress in this State. People in that situation are asking if the Bill is fair and whether it will improve things for them. The answer to both questions is "no".

This Bill is part of a co-ordinated plan to reduce on paper the numbers of those struggling with mortgages. It is a plan that could have, and to a large degree has, been written by the banks. It has no regard for social consequences. This is a plan to allow repossessions to be part of daily life in Ireland in 2013. The plan was hatched because the Government refuses to make banks play their part. Sinn Féin rejects this plan. Instead, we stand for the protection of family homes and making banks play their part in solving a mortgage crisis that they were part of creating. There is still time for the Government to do the same.

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