Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have heard many figures and we must ensure that we do not forget some very important examples. There are 142,892 family homes in mortgage distress at the end of June this year, and that figure has doubled in the life of this Government, just as it doubled under the life of the previous Government. I am sure the Taoiseach cannot begin to imagine the worry and anxiety that people face when they cannot pay their mortgages. He cannot put himself in the shoes of a husband or wife sitting down and looking at their children, worrying about losing the roof over their heads. Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of families in that position. It is not they do not want to pay their mortgages but that they do not have the means to do it. Fianna Fáil's housing policy saddled these families with unsustainable debt and Fine Gael and Labour have at every opportunity protected the banks, supporting them and enabling them to pursue these families for the debt. Where on the Taoiseach's list of priorities is the Irish family with an unsustainable debt burden?

This year the Government was forced to acknowledge the issue of mortgage distress because the bare facts, from the bank balance sheets, indicated there was a problem. What were the solutions? The Government removed the Dunne judgment, which was the only protection people had with regard to repossession of the family home. It gave the okay for banks to issue 15,000 letters threatening repossessions, which is unbelievable. The Government has allowed personal insolvency practitioners to cherry-pick the most lucrative cases, leaving the banks happy to always be in the knowledge they will have the final say, as the Government gave them a veto.

In our fair budget proposal we set out a plan for publicly funded insolvency practitioners, so at least every person in mortgage distress could be assured access to the service and have it free of charge. We have also produced legislation that should be adopted to strengthen the hands of families with distressed mortgages in dealing with the banks. There are countless solutions and we have debated the issue in this Dáil term on numerous occasions. The Government should start listening to the solutions and implementing them for the benefit of the 142,000 families currently in mortgage arrears.

Instead of listening and considering real solutions for those families, trying to tip the balance away from banks and in favour of Irish citizens, the Government has cut mortgage interest supplement, which is a payment to people with mortgages who have lost their jobs.

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