Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his answer. Sinn Féin wants this project to work. We want borrowers to be taken out of mortgage distress but what Grant Thornton has come up with is not a view, but an analysis. The figure is quite revealing and telling. They found that 86% of the families they analysed have nothing left to use to pay down their mortgage debt. The problem with the scheme that the Government has put forward is if one allows the banks a veto over any insolvency arrangement, one also allows insolvency practitioners to charge up-front fees of between €5,000 and €7,000. Given that these facts perhaps indicate something of which the Government or those who planned this might not have thought, is it not important to get an independent element into the adjudication process so there would be a new category of agreement which would be an independent agreement on mortgage distress where the Government would set up a body where a mortgage restructuring panel would have the authority to impose whatever it thought was an appropriate way out of these difficulties? If these folk do not have the money to pay it, then what happens to them? Under the Government's scheme at present, they will end up homeless. I ask the Taoiseach to consider what I and my colleagues have suggested.

I remind him that two weeks ago during Leaders' Questions the Tánaiste gave an Teachta McDonald a clear commitment that no one would be barred from the insolvency service. The Taoiseach might not be able to respond to the detail that I outlined but surely he would repeat the Tánaiste's commitment that no one would be barred from the insolvency service. Under the current rules, that 86% would be barred.

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