Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a gloomy sense of déjà vu about this motion because there is so little sign of a solution to the problem which has been haunting us for many years. Not only the previous Government but also this Government have been extraordinarily dilatory in attacking it when it was recognised a long time ago by virtually everybody. This is because those dictating the pace have consistently been those who caused the problem. This morning it was reported in the media, and I believe it was mentioned in the Minister's speech, that the Central Bank had issued new guidelines, deadlines and targets for mortgage arrears solutions. My guess is that the Governor of the Central Bank saw the meetings of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform last week and freaked. He saw the truth that this problem is nowhere near resolution, that the targets would not be met and that once again a big fudge is going on. He also saw the Government appears to be fairly passive in the face of what is happening. Deputy Pearse Doherty touched on this when he said it was good that the committee had extracted some information from the bankers who came before it last week. It was vital that it did so. It was bad news for the Governor of the Central Bank, however, because it indicated that the bankers were making monkeys of him and the Government. The lesson of what has happened will be seen when the Governor comes before the committee next week.

There is a spectator in this particular saga, and on the whole the spectator is, unfortunately, the Government. The Government has been responsible for not pushing the solution to the mortgage arrears fast enough, for delaying, for depending on reports and quoting reports, for allowing the banks to tell it lie after lie about mortgage arrears and for allowing phony solutions.

The latest is one that virtually everybody on all sides has mentioned here tonight. While I am not a member of the finance committee, I was staggered when I was there last week to hear the chief executive of AIB say that one of these sustainable solutions is to send out a legal letter. It then emerged that 14,000 legal letters were sent out - problem solved. He did not really expect anybody to believe it but, unfortunately, he had already told a bit of a porky a few weeks earlier, which he had to justify, because he had said that 20% of those in arrears were strategic defaulters. When he was asked to produce evidence for it, there was none. It is very difficult if we are continuing to allow the banks to set the pace, to set the agenda and to tell us what is happening when they are not going to tell us the truth, particularly if they are not being challenged enough by the Government. I do not know, nor does the Minister nor anybody else, what percentage of those in arrears are strategic defaulters.

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