Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Technical Group and Opposition Members who support this Bill and put forward constructive ideas. The key and crucial area of this legislation is the family home. Every time the Minster for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, claims the personal insolvency legislation is a solution, it becomes more obvious it is not. The Governor of the Central Bank made the point that 62% of sustainable solutions offered by the banks to meet Central Bank targets by the end of June involved a demand for voluntary surrender or repossession. If that continues, it will mean up to 60,000 more households facing such demands. After six years this is what distressed mortgage holders, who have been under considerable stress, will face.

The Governor also said the idea of the strategic defaulter is phoney. It angers me then that the Government carries on the banks’ phoney argument by claiming this Bill could lead to strategic default. Everyone working who has a decent wage is paying their mortgage. It is those who have lost their jobs or whose wages have been cut, who cannot afford to pay their mortgages. Up to 500,000 families have less than €50 in disposable income a month after paying their bills.

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