Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am just quoting from the letter. I will stick to the guidelines. The letter continues:

We refused to sell our home. We paid off most of our debt within a year and secured an agreement from IBRC to pay 1100 euros per month which we have paid every month since the agreement in 2013. Recently we have paid this amount into an account and not to Shoreline residential due to them not handling our situation. At this point IBRC viewed us as an asset and sold us off to Shoreline Residential Ltd. for [in the region of] 40000 euros. Our first communication with Shoreline was to request to buy back the mortgage and they agreed and said make an offer. We did make an offer which they refused and said we needed to make another offer which we did and they refused it again. At this point we felt we were doing all the running and requested that Shoreline make a counter offer so we could see where they were at and they totally refused and ignored 5/6 letters to them. We had let them into our home to value it and gave them our finance data and cooperated with all of their requests so we felt totally isolated.

That is just one case. I am raising it during today's debate because people out there are saying that the wealthy in Irish society are getting loans and debts written off, whereas people who are actually making an effort to pay back some money are being screwed and hammered into the ground. This really gets up my nose when we are talking about the terms of reference. In relation to the terms of reference, the Department of Finance and the Minister for Finance have decided that each transaction involving losses of over €10 million should be included. I would decrease that to €1 million. I also believe the timeline should be extended. There are serious governance issues in this regard. My colleague, Deputy Catherine Murphy, has raised the issue of the timescale, which is vital to the investigation. She said that it should not conclude on prom night, but should expand to cover transactions up to the present day because there are issues that straddle both time periods, including the interest rate issue. She asked for an assurance that the report will be concluded in a timely manner and that the election will not scupper it. These issues have been raised by Independent Deputies in relation to this matter.

When we are discussing these issues of banking and finance, we should not forget the broader issue, which is that many of those who support the wealthy elite in our country seem to have friends in the print media who enjoy kicking a poor country like Greece around. I strongly feel that Greece is being bullied by the EU.

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