Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I support this Bill. It is an outrage that this Government, which includes the Labour Party, is allowing vulture capitalists to buy up these mortgages at knock-down prices while the 13,246 mortgage holders will be asked to pay full whack and could face huge increases in interest charges. The fact that almost 50% of these mortgages are in arrears will also be a huge concern to these mortgage holders.

It was somewhat stomach-churning last week to hear Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies challenge the IBRC representatives at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. Legislation was voted in by those same Deputies last year to allow this to happen. It is a pity more of them did not listen during that debate and oppose the legislation rather locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

At a minimum, the Government must secure protection for these mortgage holders under the code of conduct for mortgage arrears and ensure they have access to the Financial Services Ombudsman if they have complaints. However, it would be wrong to overstate the protection mortgage holders have under the code of conduct for mortgage arrears. These are simply guidelines and there is no compulsion on lenders to offer real, sustainable solutions to those struggling to hold onto their family homes. Despite the Minister's repeated statements that he does not consider the threat of repossession a sustainable solution, the reality is 55% of what the banks consider to be offers of sustainable solutions involve voluntary sales or repossessions.

According to information from the banks themselves, one in five properties, or 26,000 mortgages, could be repossessed. That figure only relates to the main lenders operating in Ireland. Obviously, the figure includes buy-to-let properties. The Government must act to ensure that in the case of family homes where there is a genuine inability to meet full payments, repossession should be a non-starter. This could be done by making it compulsory for lenders to offer genuine solutions, such as split mortgages, write-downs and, where suitable, the mortgage-to-rent scheme. I know of several cases in my constituency in which mortgage-to-rent is the only way to keep families in their homes, yet lenders such as Bank of Scotland refuse to investigate the scheme.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland is absolutely useless in protecting the average home owner. This issue of the IBRC sell-off is yet another example of the Government's failure to put the interest of the homeowner first.

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