Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Murphy in this regard. The issue at hand is the future of approximately 13,000 individual IBRC mortgage holders. Over 11,000 of those mortgages relate to principal private residences and family homes. The key issue is the potential for these people to lose the protections afforded to them by the code of mortgage arrears if the mortgage book is sold by the special liquidator to an entity that is not regulated by the Central Bank. That is the key concern. As Deputy Murphy has said, a recent ministerial reply suggested that "the continued applicability of the Central Bank Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears and Mortgage Arrears Targets Programme will depend on the regulatory status of the ultimate acquirer of the portfolio which we will not know until the sales process has concluded". That is not acceptable. The Minister has the power under section 4 of the IBRC Act to issue direction orders to the special liquidator. As far as I am concerned, under no circumstances should the Minister allow the mortgage book to be sold to an entity that is not regulated by the Central Bank. The consequence of such a sale would be that 11,000 mortgage holders would lose the key protections that apply to their family homes having been built up by successive Governments. To my mind, that would be unacceptable.

The mortgage holders have organised themselves as a group and this is to be welcomed. There is a great deal of information on a website, askaboutmoney.com. Mr. Brendan Burgess is advocating quite strongly on behalf of these mortgage holders. They have other concerns apart from those I have raised. In particular, they are concerned that the mortgage book might be sold on to a vulture fund or a venture capital fund that might unilaterally decide to increase interest rates. While it could be argued that the same thing applies to any bank or individual mortgage holder, it is a key concern for individuals. It is important for this House to reassure people that they will retain these key protections if the mortgage book is sold. That is absolutely essential. The Minister has made some positive noises about the possibility of NAMA ending up with the mortgage book. NAMA would almost certainly step up to the plate in terms of applying the current standards and protections. We need reassurance to be provided in this House.

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