Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is important legislation and we are all grateful to our colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, for introducing it in Private Members’ time. It is timely and important in getting to the nub of the problem affecting many families as various Members outlined. Having 37,484 families in mortgage arrears for over two years, with many more in arrears under that time, graphically illustrates the challenges involved.

The intransigence of the banks in this regard is clearly a problem. Only 129 personal insolvency arrangements involving secured debt have been made by the Insolvency Service of Ireland since it was established in 2014. This highlights the problems we need to confront. There is an avalanche of cases for repossessions coming before the courts. Ours is still a local and community-based society. At the core of many of the difficulties with mortgage repayments is unemployment. Loss of a job diminishes or eliminates a person’s or family’s repayment capacities.

Should we have a State employment agency that registers those with distressed mortgages to ensure they will be advised of the availability of employment from the large range of jobs that are thankfully coming on stream? For someone in a distressed mortgage situation, foraging for employment is a much greater challenge than it is for someone who is not. Given this particular problem, it is important to have a support mechanism in place to help those with distressed mortgages. If a personal representative of someone in such a position could tell the courts in a repossession hearing that their client had just secured employment and their circumstances had changed because of the intervention and advocacy of a State agency, then it would change the dynamics very considerably. I suggest the Minister of State gives some consideration be given to an arrangement such as this.

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