Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Everyone agrees this is a very difficult problem. It almost looked as if it was intractable at the start of our period in government. However, because we assessed the situation and provided a menu of possible solutions for restructuring mortgages, it has worked pretty well. A total of 120,000 mortgages have been restructured, which is well beyond the halfway point of mortgages in arrears. We can see the progress being made in new structuring month by month. During the past five or six months, we have begun to see an end in sight. Some of the measures have been suggested by Members while others have come from outside advisers. However, the last block causing concern in this House was the issue of evictions and repossession orders.

Some Members have met Mr. Brendan Burgess. I read an article by him in the newspaper last week. He wrote of how he had heard there were strange practices among the courts in the midlands and he went to see for himself. It is an interesting article. He said there were four repossession orders but three of them were for houses that had been abandoned. The people had emigrated and there was no track of them. They were not represented in court and they did not appear in court.

What we have done now is provide an alternative. In the next week, there will be a legal alternative to repossession. At the moment, it is informal. Judges do not want to give repossession orders and the banks do not want to press. However, there will now be a route, with the advice of MABS, through the new insolvency arrangements in order that new arrangements can be arrived at, this time, through insolvency law.

See this speech in context