Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Michael McGrath on his introduction of this Bill. It is important and timely legislation. While I acknowledge that the Government will accept the Bill tomorrow night, I listened carefully to the speech of the Minister of State in my office and, with respect, I have no idea what the Government will do. It will accept the Bill tomorrow night but I do not know if it will go to Committee Stage soon. I do not feel it will be in place before the sales process. That reflects the Government’s quite extraordinary position on this issue throughout. That position has been that it will not legislate but will wait to see who buys the loans of these 13,000 families and then phone them up and say "What's the story?", to quote the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan.

The Government says it will legislate if necessary. Of course it is necessary. These 13,000 families deserve equal protection under law. We do not say it is illegal to burgle one set of houses but not illegal to burgle a particular set of 13,000 houses. What the Minister is saying is that we would prefer if nobody burgled those houses, but if too many people do, he will legislate. That is a completely unacceptable position. When in this country did we start treating people differently under the law? Surely we are moving to a better place than that.

The notion of a voluntary agreement, which the Minister of State mentioned, is complete nonsense. It is not written down. There is no oversight by the Minister, the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Central Bank or the Department of Finance.

Nobody will ask the bidder whether it has spent the €1 million required to bring the IT system into compliance with the CCMA. Nobody will see the IT system. These American hedge funds will not be asked whether they have hired 40 compliance officers. The CCMA is a complicated and unwieldy document which offers limited protection, despite the amount work it requires to be done. Nobody will walk into the company's office in Dallas or Chicago and demand to meet the compliance officers or investigate the IT systems and audit trail. That is not going to happen.

The liquidator told the Joint Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform that, in his professional opinion, if the bidders were asked to sign a binding agreement, they would reduce their bid price. The liquidator said he believed the bidders would comply, but at the same time he expressed the opinion that they would lower their bid if they were forced to comply. That means that they are putting a cash value on the ability to walk away from their agreement. It is preposterous for the liquidator and the Government to maintain these two positions at the same time.

Even if the families in question are given some protection under the legislation - I hope they will - they will not be allowed to bid for their own mortgages. I previously outlined the example of a family who were going to be evicted from their house because they were unable to pay their arrears. According to the latest information I have received, the mortgage will be sold for 30 cent in the euro. The mortgage is valued at €220,000 and the Government will sell it for approximately €60,000 to someone from America who will knock on the family's door to tell them to get out. If they do not get out, he or she will not only pursue them for the residual amount but will also add €10,000 in legal fees for the eviction.

I have raised this issue repeatedly during Leaders' Questions and we spent four hours discussing it with the liquidator. I have tried to understand the Government's position. I have told the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste that a process could be designed to return to the State the same amount of money, while also allowing the families in question to bid for their mortgages. I urged the Government to pause the sale to allow such a process to be designed, but the answer was "No." I have been asking myself why it will not help 13,000 families at the same time as returning the same amount of money to the State. It has only occurred to me in the past few days that it does not want to do so. It does not want these families to bid for their own mortgages because it may result in an inconvenient headline from some begrudger complaining that a family got a mortgage write-down of 50% and from a bunch of other people asking, "What about me?" This reflects a pathetic and damaging lack of political leadership. I commend Deputy Michael McGrath for introducing the Bill. The Government's position is appalling. It is feeding 13,000 families to the wolves.

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