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

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and thank Deputy Joan Collins and the other members of the Technical Group for tabling this motion. I apologise that I was not here to listen to some of the contributions so far as I had to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform - the Minister, Deputy Noonan, is addressing pre-ECOFIN business.

Tonight's debate is vital as there may be a sense of complacency when it comes to the issue of mortgage arrears. The issue has not yet been dealt with and, while action is being taken by the banks, it is a scattergun approach. In some cases they get it right and in others they do not. The approach of banks to mortgage arrears shows a distinct lack of consistency and transparency and this is evidenced in the approach of the two pillar banks. Today the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation announced that in the past year over 1,300 of its clients restructured their mortgages with AIB. Up to 100 of these cases involved writing off mortgage debt, part of the principal balance. Bank of Ireland, the other pillar bank that was saved by the State, is in a healthier position and a majority of its shares are in private ownership. In contrast to AIB it has an entirely different policy and will not give mortgage write-offs under any circumstances. Borrowers in similar circumstances are being treated entirely differently by the two pillar banks and this is fundamentally unfair. We should not stand over this approach.

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