Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Although I do not take too much notice of the members of the Opposition who take their banking policy from what was the old USSR, I was expecting a little more from a party that feels it actually should be in power some day. Deputy Pearse Doherty knows that when one puts forward legislation, one is supposed to look at things in totality. From my experience of watching Deputy Doherty in the finance committee, he understands finance and how legislation works. I do not think this Bill takes into account the grand totality of what is actually happening or what has been done for people in mortgage arrears, how the market works or what happens with banks. I am sure most of the Opposition Members have not read the Central Bank of Ireland May 2015 report on the influences on the standard variable mortgage pricing in Ireland, although they should read it. That report states that there are three main factors involved: credit risk, weak competition and bank profitability which is constrained by legacy issues. Some of those legacy issues stem from the fact that half the mortgages in our banking system are tracker mortgages. They are absolutely fantastic for the people who have them, but they make no money for the banks and drag them down. This impacts on how the banks work.

An interesting point was made, which could be investigated further by the Minister. When Richie Boucher came before the finance committee, he said that Bank of Ireland's mortgage book in the UK is similar in size to the book they have in Ireland. The mortgage book in England is considered to be of better quality, although the repossession rates in the UK are twice those in Ireland. He has a better quality loan book but twice the repossession rates. That does not make sense. One would expect the repossession rates to be higher in Ireland rather than in the UK. That is something that deserves investigation and discussion in this House, if we could have reasonable, rational debates rather than what passes as debate. If repossession rates are lower in Ireland, what factors are causing it? Is it because we have better protection from the Central Bank? Do we have better legislation protecting people with mortgages? Do we have courts that understand peoples' concerns better than the UK courts? We need to know these things.

It has been pointed out time and again that banks cannot take title back, to use that phrase, which describes them as the credit risk. If they cannot take the title back on properties for which they have loans, they say they have to pay more for the money they rent out to everybody. It is quite possible that, without realising it, there is a solidarity going on in this country among the 85% of people who are paying their mortgages on time and those who are paying their restructured mortgages. We do not understand that we may all be in this together more than we think. There are so many other factors coming into this, yet the proposed legislation is simplistic. I do not know what the thinking behind it is at all and cannot really understand where it is coming from. Quite a lot has been done to protect people and we can do more.

I am surprised the proposed legislation makes no reference to offering protection to people whose loans might be sold on, which are not protected under the usual structures we have for the banks. That is an issue for many people, as I am sure the Deputies across the floor understand. The legislation we are putting through the House right now is there to offer individuals who had their loans sold from the regular banks, which are covered by the Central Bank, protection under the code of conduct on mortgage arrears. It will ensure that they will not end up in the situation we have been hearing about, especially in respect of small businesses, where many of these so-called vulture funds are trying to take possession of people's property. We must continue to examine this in order to protect those individuals.

From Sinn Féin's experience in government with the DUP in Northern Ireland, has it done anything that has changed the way banking laws work in the United Kingdom and that follows the proposed legislation? Has Sinn Féin some experience it can bring from there? I do not think banking legislation in Northern Ireland has changed that dramatically. The situation up there is just as serious as it is down here.

I do not think this legislation is genuine or that the Sinn Féin Members genuinely believe in it at all. They are just putting it forward because they think there is a market for votes in this legislation. They are trying to sell this concept to the Irish people that the financial crisis and our economic system are somehow in silos, that what we do with this legislation has absolutely no effect on the variable rate of the other 85% of people who are paying their mortgages on time, that it is has no knock-on effect at all on the cost of credit to banks in the future and that this just happens to sit there on its own and makes no difference.

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