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

The Minister makes the point that the unregulated entities that have bought mortgage books thus far have complied with the code voluntarily. What if one of those mortgage holders disputes that? What if they believe that those companies, vulture funds, or whatever the Minister wants to call them, are not complying with the code? Who adjudicates on that? Do they go to Dame Street and knock on the door of the Central Bank? They will be told it has nothing to do with the Central Bank. Do they go to Merrion Square and knock on the door of the Department of Finance? They will be told that it has nothing to do with the Department. They have nowhere to turn, and that is the point. The owners of these funds can claim that they are voluntarily complying with the code of conduct, but who decides that? Who adjudicates when an issue arises if somebody gets into difficulty with their mortgage and the fund is moving in on them immediately? Nobody adjudicates, and that is the bottom line.

The Minister knows there is a problem and that is why he is proposing his own legislation dealing with the sale of loans to unregulated entities, but that is not due to be published until 2015. He acknowledges by his own argument that there is a difficulty here. He claims that it will be a very difficult to get a repossession order in a court unless the entity has complied with the code of conduct, but are we really going to let the bailiff come up the driveway? Are we going to allow people to go through the stress and anxiety of a threat of repossession before that particular provision is invoked?

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