Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate and commend Deputy Michael McGrath on bringing forward the legislation. It is important to keep this issue on the agenda. It seems Private Members' business is the only means by which that can be done, because it does not seem to be on the Government's agenda. This is a crisis that was foreseen. In May 2011, the Technical Group presented a Private Members' motion which, for the first time in the life of this Dáil, raised the mortgage crisis. Like all other such motions, and as will happen tomorrow night, it was voted down by the Government.

When that motion was defeated, I thought perhaps the crisis had not fully materialised and the Government was holding off to see the extent of the problem. Four years later, the problem keeps getting bigger and the Government is doing less and less. Any action it has taken was in favour of lenders. Even the changes made by the Central Bank recently in regard to the deposits required for first-time buyers place the onus on them to be prudent and not to get into difficulty. This reinforces the idea that the crisis is all our own fault and we partied too much. Why is the onus not being put on lenders to act responsibly? Why is no onus being placed on banks to ensure customers do not overextend themselves? Why do we not consider allowing people to avail of non-recourse mortgages?

That would put the full onus on banks to ensure the money they lent was dealt with sensibly. That would do more to prevent a property bubble than putting false onerous deposit and other requirements on people who simply will find ways to get around them. In addition, an entire insurance market will be created in which people will be able to insure the level of deposits above the 10% required. That relates to a future issue with which Members probably will be obliged to deal in years to come.

As mentioned in the House, on 16 February there were 271 repossession cases before the Circuit Court in County Donegal. In one case involving a family with six children facing repossession the husband had been obliged to emigrate to find work to try to keep the family in their home. These are the people who are coming before the courts. There is already a housing crisis and one simply will add to it by making sure people will lose their homes and end up on the social housing list. Unless this issue is dealt with once and for all, it will continue to spiral out of control.

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