Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I recognise that many steps have been put in place by this Government to help people who are in mortgage distress. It is important that all of us, as Deputies, whether we are in Opposition parties or Government parties, acknowledge those steps and get the message out to our constituents so they know where to go and know the measures that are available to them. While I know Deputies would generally do that, some in the Opposition would jump on the bandwagon and give a very misleading impression that help is not available.

Members talk about constituency work. While I am sure it is the same for everybody, a significant amount of my constituency work these days concerns people in mortgage arrears, debt and negative equity, including problems moving from a property that is too small for the family size to a bigger property because the family is in negative equity. This work is very important in that it means we are in touch with how these issues affect our constituents in practice, which is why it is so important to do constituency work and why it is such an important part of our job.

I will not go through all of the measures that are in place but I make the point that other measures are needed. The Department of Social Protection currently deals with mortgage arrears. The issue is that, while the number of people in arrears has increased, the number of people in receipt of mortgage interest supplement has decreased, and I suggest this is largely to do with new rules that were introduced a year ago. A group was set up by the Government a couple of years ago to consider the issue of mortgage arrears and it recommended that the rules for mortgage interest supplement should be changed to allow more people to qualify for it. Currently, a person can only qualify for that social welfare payment if he or she works part-time, whereas the group recommended that it be made available to people who work full-time. This is an issue that needs to be addressed. The group also suggested that the means test should be revised, as did a review from the Department of Social Protection.

It is very important that we do not let this happen again. In my constituency, I have noticed new developments for sale where property is back to prices from some years ago, say, over €300,000 for a family home, which is expensive. The whole issue with the price of property was that it had become so far removed from people's salaries. It is not just that we need prices to go up. It is that we cannot allow a situation to arise again where there is a massive gap between what people earn and the price of housing. We have to keep an eye on this issue and put in place steps to address it. I would still be in favour of the implementation of the Kenny report.

On an issue I raised in a parliamentary question to the Minister last week, life loans were sold by Bank of Ireland which I do not believe were appropriate to sell to older people with social welfare pensions. I have a constituent who now has a massive loan hanging over her. I do not believe this kind of product, which is basically an equity release product, should be offered on the market by our banks again.

See this speech in context