Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As has been said already today, as well as on many other occasions and reinforced by the groups before the finance committee last week, many of the so-called sustainable solutions are just demands for so-called voluntary surrender or, increasingly, an acceleration of repossession efforts. Lenders are not seriously implementing the mortgage-to-rent scheme, for example, which would be a way of dealing with people in real repayment difficulty. There is significant inconsistency across the banks because the Minister gave them the veto in the personal insolvency legislation. Banks are being banks. That is what we were told in the finance committee. Banks will always behave with their best interests at heart, not in the best interests of distressed mortgage holders. The Minister’s responsibility is to ensure consistency and fairness for the tens of thousands of people in mortgage distress.

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