Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is no sign in rural areas of the recovery the Government talks about on a regular basis. In fact, people are getting sick of listening to the talk of recovery. The constituency offices of every Member of this House are full of people in distress about their inability to pay their mortgages and the fear that they will lose their homes. A constituent who is facing eviction, possibly in the next number of weeks, contacted me today. A 25 year old man also contacted me today. He was given a mortgage of €250,000 from a lender at 19 years of age on the basis of two payslips. The same lenders are, for their own selfish interests, extracting every cent they can from the public and people who borrowed money to build houses for their families.

This Bill is the product of many years of work from Deputy Pearse Doherty who has been active on the issue of high interest rates since he set foot in this House. As far back as 2011, he asked Deputy Eamon Gilmore to ensure that the banks passed on the ECB interest rate cuts to ordinary borrowers and he was extracting promises from the Minister of State's former leader that the Government would act forcefully with the banks to ensure they passed on the rate reductions to consumers. Meanwhile, four years on the Government has watched people's distress and has done nothing to curb the powers of the banks. The banks still have a veto on any kind of mortgage resolution.

When I consider this kind of behaviour by the Government, sometimes I wonder if it is really so far removed from the reality of the lives of the people it is supposed to represent, or is it the case that it knows the reality but does not give a toss about the stress people are under and what that does to them, their families and their friends in terms of putting food on the table and paying exorbitant interest rates to banks that are way beyond anything else in Europe. The Bill is a response to the reality of the situation. The very high standard variable rate mortgages are a scandal. Irish mortgage holders are paying more compared to England and other EU states. The eurozone average is only 2.8 %, while people here are paying, on average, 4.26%.

We are bringing forward this Bill to put a temporary cap on interest rates. This is an exceptional measure for exceptional times. We are referring only to those banks that the people have bailed out and it is about time the Government put its foot down on behalf of the people who suffered because of that bailout. It is time to stand with the people against the banks. I and the people I represent are fed up watching the Government crumple in the face of the banks. The banks have a moral obligation to start giving something back to the people. The Government has been sadly lacking in that regard.

This Bill is very careful to give regard to the profitability and viability of the banks. It allows the Central Bank to set a maximum rate of standard variable rates at the covered institutions and even allows banks to look for a review of any cap after six months. The Bill only applies to bailed out banks, that is, the banks which would have gone under if the people had not bailed them out. Incidentally, the people were never consulted about that. These institutions now have some responsibility to society to give something back. They are State-owned banks and they have a duty to the State and, more importantly, to society. The interest rates are too high and if the banks will not act to reduce them, then the Government must. If the Minister of State was serious, he and his party members would, given what his previous leader said in the House in 2011, support the Bill.

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