Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with somebody, if somebody wishes to come in. I am glad to have the opportunity to make a few general points on this issue. Obviously, I support the legislation. The tragedy of the so-called recovery over recent years is the fact that we have not had the people central to our focus in terms of the measures we have sought to implement. Professor Sean Barrett, as a Member of the Seanad, frequently used to speak of the secret back stairs in the Department of Finance to which bankers seemed to have exclusive access, and it certainly seems like that when we see good legislation being put forward that puts first the people who have suffered and who have ultimately sacrificed in beginning that recovery which seems to be taking hold here in Dublin but not elsewhere throughout the country. We have to begin to embrace these issues.

The constitutional argument is nonsense. When I put forward the Family Home Bill in July 2011 in the Seanad to give protections to families against losing their family home, that same argument was put forward. Nobody would share the Attorney General's advice on that occasion and yet for five years we have had many families put to the pin of their collar, and many put out of their homes in that period, while we obsess about the profitability of the banks. As Deputy Michael McGrath has eloquently outlined, the level of profitability that AIB has managed to put together over recent years, looking after its cost of funds and a margin for itself and still reducing rates four times over the period, shows that it can be done. Therefore, it is time we put the people central to this and put the people's representatives in this House in command. If the Central Bank is not anxious to have these powers, frankly, it is not its call. That is a matter for this House to decide. We should face up to our responsibilities and equip the Central Bank with the tools the people demand it should have so as to give them the protections they need.

The balance is wrong between the profitability focus on the banks and looking after the people. As far as I am concerned, throughout the process the banks have engaged only superficially with people. There is all talk of split mortgages, warehousing, restructuring, etc. The reality is very different. If a person is a big boy on the back of the Sunday Independent, he or she will get a couple of hundred million euro wiped out, and those self-same businessmen are flying around in choppers and so on. However, what are we doing for the person in my constituency who texted me this morning telling me of receipt of a notice from Start Mortgages to surrender the house? What is in the State's interest in putting that family out of their home? These are the kinds of measures we have to look at and, I hope, in discussing with colleagues on this side of the House, that we will bring back the Family Home Bill 2011 to give those kinds of protections to families because they deserve it for the pain they have put up with. While those in the banks in their ivory towers once again enjoy the fruits of profitability, bonuses, etc., we owe it to the people, borrowers like that family which got the notice this morning from Start Mortgages to surrender their house, to ensure we are doing something for them.

As I stated, we have had superficial engagement. Why does the Minister not suggest to the banks that it is time we followed the continental example where there are intergenerational mortgages to help people? How many families does the Minister know who have been offered one of those? How many 45 year olds in arrears does the Minister know who were taken aside and told they are a good bet, they will get employment again, they will make money again and the lender will add 15 years to their term, push the loan out and warehouse half of it? That is not happening because the Minister is not interested in doing it. It is because the Minister blindly leaves here and goes to the Department where the advisers tell him what the practice is or the Attorney General says she does not know how this will go down in the Four Courts or whether it will be acceptable.

For once, let the House show the leadership the people want it to have. I very much hope this Bill will be accepted. Deputy Michael McGrath started, along with others of my party in the Seanad, with a package of measures dating back to June and July 2011 and, sadly, the Government of which the Minister was a member, which was in control, put the banks back into profitability but forgot the most important consideration, that is, the people. We all heard on many occasions about the systemic nature and value of the banks to society, but what about the systemic nature of the people?

This is the beginning in terms of the legislative proposals of Fianna Fáil in opposition. I hope that others in the House embrace what we are doing, vote it through and vote down the Government amendment which is nonsense, and that we will follow up with more proposals to try to put the people central to the focus of the work of these Houses.

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