Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo atá curtha síos ag an Teachta Dála McGrath. Is ceist í seo atá á phlé againn le cúpla bliain anuas. Tá sí á phlé againn arís agus arís eile le tamall maith anois ach gan aon réiteach ar an gceist ag teacht ón Rialtas nó ón Aire Airgeadais ach go háirithe. Baineann an cheist seo leis na mílte daoine atá i gcruachás maidir lena gcuid morgáistí agus leo siúd atá ag feidhmiú i ngnóthaí, go háirithe gnóthaí bheaga. Baineann an cheist seo le daoine nach bhfuil i gcruachás chomh maith ach a bhfuil faoi bhrú millteanach ó thaobh an méid caiteachais atá acu gach lá agus gach seachtain mar gheall ar na rátaí úis bainc atá á íoc acu. Tá na rátaí seo ag ardú le cúpla bliain anuas ach níl an Banc Ceannais nó an Rialtas ag déanamh aon rud faoi. D'éist mé leis an méid a bhí le rá ag an Aire Stáit. Tá urlár an Tí fágtha ag an Aire Stáit arís. Tá sé imithe. Níl mórán faoisimh sa leasú atá curtha síos ag an Rialtas do dhaoine. Labhair mise faoi na daoine sin. Labhair Teachtaí eile fúthu chomh maith agus ní hamháin Teachtaí ón bhFreasúra iad san ach Teachtaí ón Rialtas fosta. Níl an Rialtas ag déanamh ach an beagán. Níl an Rialtas ag déanamh ach an méid is lú gur féidir leis.

I welcome the motion before the House tonight. I have raised this issue in the past and it has been raised with me by people throughout the State, sometimes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. As the previous speaker said, I imagine there is not a Deputy in the House who would not have had concerns raised with him or her on this matter.

Sinn Féin will be supporting the motion and rejecting the Government amendment, which is weak. Basically, it does what the Government has done all the way through, that is, it places its entire trust in the banking system. We know that is an incorrect position to hold and that the Government would not take this position if it was really looking out for the interests of Irish citizens. We know this because of the way the banks are abusing the mortgage arrears resolution targets. We know this because when it comes to personal insolvency arrangements the banks hold a veto and are not afraid to use that veto. We know this because the Government will not stand up to these same mighty banks. We know this only too well and it has been confirmed tonight in the Government's pathetic amendment. The Government has no intention of interfering in any way with the banks in respect of the excessive interest rates they are charging customers. The Fine Gael-Labour Party Government will not stand up to the banks. That is a well-established policy and they are not for changing, as we have heard from the Minister of State tonight.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, seems simply not to care. He is no longer bothered even pretending to care about this issue. There has been a remarkable evolution in the thinking of the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, on interest rates. In 2010, when the Minister was the Opposition finance spokesperson, he said: "The least that taxpayers should now expect is for Bank of Ireland and AIB to set an example by cancelling planned increases in variable mortgage rates." Let us move forward to 2011. The newly-appointed Minister told the House in December 2011 in a written reply that at a meeting with AIB he "requested of him that the bank reconsider its position in light of the current circumstances faced by mortgage holders across the country".

At the time, the Labour Party leader was more vociferous, saying it was "the intention of the Government that the interest rate reduction should be passed on," and adding that the Government might take action against AIB if it refused to comply. Fighting talk. However, by 2013, the Minister had changed his tune quite a lot. By then, the Government had decided to hide behind the relationship framework with the banks, the same relationship framework the Minister and Government Deputies are hiding behind tonight. Now, in 2015, the last pretence of pretending to care has been done away with. Now the line is, "[T]he mortgage interest rates that independent financial institutions operating in Ireland charge to customers are determined as a result of a commercial decision by the institutions concerned and the Minister for Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland have no statutory role in relation to the mortgage interest rates charged." The evolution in a few years from a Minister and a Government who pretended to care to a Minister and a Government who could not even be bothered pretending to care is clear for all to see.

There are things the Government can do; it just does not want to do them. Some days it seems that the Minister, Deputy Noonan, forgets completely he owns the banks. Why does he forget this? The Government must use its resources for the betterment of society and to create fairness, but that is not what it is doing. AIB, Permanent TSB and a chunk of Bank of Ireland belong to the Irish people. That is why I have drafted legislation that would give far greater powers to the Financial Regulator to veto applications for an interest rate hike by banks in which the people have a stake. That is the democratic and socially responsible way for banks to be regulated in times such as these. These are not normal times. These are times when we have 100,000 families in mortgage arrears, the same families who are suffering under the burden of austerity imposed by this Government and the previous Government as a result of bailing out these very same banks. Will this type of regulation I have drafted come into force under this Government? Of course it will not happen, because the Government has made it clear that the banks will have the final say.

I wonder, when we look at the disastrous number of people in mortgage arrears, how many are there because the Government has decided that the policies of the banks it owns on behalf of the people are none of its business. How many of the thousands living in fear of repossession were tipped over into arrears by one increase too many while the Government and the Central Bank washed their hands of any responsibility? The Government has adopted a clear banking strategy, we are told time and again. It is very clear what it is. It will let the banks do what they want, including kicking people out of their homes, it will let the banks rip off Irish mortgage holders and it will do nothing to annoy the Irish banking sector.

We are supposed to be in a new enlightened era of regulation in the public good. We are told that the bad old days are well behind us. When it comes to the banks and the wider financial services, however, I fear we are actually slipping in the opposite direction. In Ireland, in 2015, a wealth trust fund located not far from this House can proudly boast to its global clients in its advertising slogan: "We are able to offer our corporate clients a highly professional service in a lightly regulated environment without the costs or inconveniences associated with an offshore jurisdiction." In Ireland, in 2015, a credit card company can hike interest rates by 4% on customers already in arrears and the best the Government can do when I raise this is to direct the families affected to a website to compare prices. That is the best the Government can do - to send a link to a Deputy who is raising the concerns of people who are in arrears with a company that has just given its customers notice that it is raising rates by 4%, and tell them to check www.gocompare.com. It is a pathetic response.

I am shocked at the cheek of the Government in patting itself on the back tonight, because it has referenced the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill in its amendment to the motion. It is pretty hard to stomach a Government that has very consciously allowed the banks to sell to vulture funds claiming credit for tabling a Bill to deal with the activities of vulture funds four years into that Government's term. For many, the horse has well and truly bolted, as these funds have behaved the way vultures do and picked the meat off the carcass.

Extending the code of conduct and the protection of the Financial Services Ombudsman is all well and good, but will it help mortgage holders thrown to the vultures by banks owned by the Government? How will access to the watered-down code of conduct help families who have had their interest rates increased by vulture funds or had their homes taken? The decision by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, to sign off on the Central Bank’s dilution of the code of conduct on mortgage arrears was a cold, calculated move done to please the banks.

In my view, the Central Bank is not fulfilling its role in regulating the financial sector. As far back as 2012, the Central Bank knew that Permanent TSB was in breach of the rules by shifting customers from tracker mortgages to more expensive variable rate mortgages, yet where was the action? It was only after a court case had adjudicated on the issue that the Central Bank stepped in. Where is the Central Bank's role in regard to consumer protection? It seems that when the banks are involved, the wheels of justice for the family in the street move very slowly. Yet many of those same families who have been moved from a tracker rate to a variable rate by a State-owned bank have yet to get a letter from that bank telling them how this issue will be dealt with, despite the courts having adjudicated on a test case in this regard.

We have a Financial Services Ombudsman that has been reluctant to embrace the full range of powers open to it. I believe there is potential for the Ombudsman to be empowered to rule that interest rate increases by banks and others are not justifiable. Unfortunately, there is a perception among the people who have used this service that the game is rigged in favour of the banks. Even more unfortunate is the fact that this view is accurate. There is a need for a major rebalancing of powers towards the consumer when it comes to disputes with financial services providers.

There is a need for the Government to get real about the banks. Despite everything that has happened, this Government actually trusts the banks. Why? What has it seen that has caused it to trust that these financial institutions will behave responsibly and appropriately in regard to Irish consumers and citizens? On what possible grounds would anybody trust the banks, given the litany of mistakes? In some cases, it could go beyond mistakes, and I have given examples of people who have been pushed from tracker mortgage rates to variable rates. The answer is that the Government trusts the banks because it has decided that the banks come first and citizens come second. At all times and regardless of the situation, the Government's view is that the banks will have the final say. That is the Ireland of 2015. Families struggling with a mortgage will pay what the banks want and a weak Government will let them away with it.

Shame on the Minister and shame on the backbencher Deputies who rightly speak up and say that more has to be done but, tomorrow night, when the bells ring at 9 p.m., will march in here and vote against a motion that demands that more be done. They will instead line up to pat the Minister on the back for doing nothing but appeasing the banks and sending Irish consumers to these vultures, as we have seen in the last number of years.

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