Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion brought forward by my party colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath. It is consistent with the approach he and our party have taken since the last election in terms of ensuring we are a credible Opposition and that we are bringing forward credible proposals on the most important issues.

It is more than two years since Deputy Michael McGrath and other party colleagues introduced a Bill to establish an independent mortgage resolution office to ensure independent oversight so that those mortgages in arrears and people in trouble with repayments would have some type of independent arbitration available to them. Oversight of the banking sector failed in the boom years. Unfortunately, when mortgages are in trouble, it seems that independent oversight and governance of the banking sector will be weak in this instance also. We saw the problems created as a result of banks being left to their own devices when mortgages were being handed out. Little regard was paid to a person's ability to repay a mortgage and many people are in difficulties now.

I know of a single person who was granted a mortgage worth €500,000 in the good times which, fortunately, the person did not take up. That same person, who had not taken on any debt and who is employed, was refused a credit card during the boom. That was the type of lending policy the banks adopted when left to their own devices. Those will be the types of principles and action we can expect from the banks now when we leave it in their hands - when we give them the power of veto in striking deals with mortgagors who are in distress.

Unfortunately, it is not the good and betterment of society which drives the banks; it is the need for profit and the need to ensure that the interests of the banks win out and are served. We cannot expect that the banks will act in a way that is in the best interests of the people who need our protection and who need independent oversight in order to ensure they are not left behind or failed.

There are now 140,000 mortgagors in distress, which means that half a million people are living in houses in which the household is unable to keep up with the mortgage repayments. Deputy John Browne outlined one instance of how the Government's failure to implement independent oversight may play out. One mortgagor with €27,000 remaining on his mortgage and with equity in his house, who has been paying an interest-only mortgage, was asked by the bank to sell the house in order to repay that money. It has been very disappointing to listen to the contributions from many of the backbenchers on the other side of the House. Instead of dealing with the issue at hand, they have been finger-wagging and blaming as a means of covering up for their failure to deal with the issues and to present real solutions. There was an unfortunate failure in the past with regard to oversight of the banking sector. People can claim they were not aware of this failure at the time. Nobody can claim they were not aware of the situation and the troubles facing the country. There is no excuse for not ensuring that proper oversight is implemented and that mortgages in default are dealt with appropriately and in the best interests of citizens and not of the banks.

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