Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I can only assume that the Tánaiste picked up the wrong piece of paper to read. I did not ask him about legislation on the CCMA. I asked him whether we could pause the sales process to figure out whether another could be devised in which families would be allowed to bid on their own mortgages while returning the same or greater value to the liquidator.

I will provide a quick example from the protest outside Leinster House. A gentleman with whom I spoke who lives in a home with his wife and their children owes €220,000 and will not be in a position to repay it. The liquidator will sell the gentleman's mortgage for a conservative estimate of €100,000, although it could be as little as €50,000. The man and his wife could refinance at €150,000, but they are not being given that opportunity.

When I put my next comment to the liquidator yesterday, he did not disagree. What is likely to happen is that one of the two final bidders, both of which are funds from the US that specialise in distressed assets, will buy the family's €220,000 mortgage for approximately €100,000, quickly ascertain that the man and his wife cannot pay the former amount and, after ascertaining that there is equity in the house, initiate repossession proceedings and evict him, his wife and his children. On the basis that the liquidator is acting on imperfect information and the Minister has not even seen the advice, it is clear that a process could be devised that would allow this man, his wife and children and thousands of other families to stay in their homes through buying back their mortgages at the same prices or even more. However, those mortgages are about to be sold to international funds that invest in distressed assets.

On the basis that what is about to happen is going to cause enormous and unnecessary distress to tens of thousands of men, women and children------

See this speech in context