Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I support the principle of this legislation. There is a particular financial limit in it, so we are considering modest family homes in the main. Over the last five years, one of the big frustrations has been the very much hands-off approach when it comes to the individual mortgagee. There has been a real feeling of unfairness that the decisions made have been made in favour of the banks at the expense of some of their customers. There is a different rate for people who are lucky enough to be on tracker mortgages. However, there is a real feeling of unfairness about the variable interest rate, which very often threatens the affordability of accommodation and pushes families needlessly into mortgage debt.

From that point of view, we very much welcome that this Bill opens up a dialogue. One of the things that causes me concern is that we talk about the ECB and how the ECB will not permit something. It is quite extraordinary how the ECB can facilitate, and has facilitated, measures that have imposed a major burden on this State while it stands over or wields a big stick over individual mortgage holders, who are struggling, even though its lending rates are very low. That is unacceptable.

There is a very human cost to people being constantly in debt and constantly struggling and we are even starting to see very often health implications for people who are under stress all of the time. This Bill in part attempts to remedy this human dimension. I see absolutely no reason a Bill such as this one cannot pass Second Stage and go to Committee Stage in order that it can be fleshed out and certain provisions can be changed, if they need to be changed.

It also concerns me that we constantly trot out the Constitution when it comes to the little people. If one reads the article in the Constitution on property rights, one sees there is no such thing as absolute rights. Property rights are very well defined in Article 43. It uses the words "common good" and "social justice", so the property rights are essentially tempered by other rights. Very often, however, when it comes to the little people, property rights are taken as absolute rights and there is an onus on us on some occasions to challenge this. Lawyers disagree all of the time but if one does not question them or push them to the point where that is a consideration, one is taking it as a given that certain rights are absolute and I for one do not accept that premise.

For these reasons, we are happy to support this Bill. It needs to go to Committee Stage. There are provisions in it that need further consideration but I see no reason it cannot proceed to Committee Stage and get the kind of scrutiny at that level that the parliamentary structure allows for.

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