Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this Bill, which I support. It was introduced by my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath. It is important that, as Members of the Oireachtas, we do everything in our power to protect people and allow them to stay in their family homes instead of seeing them evicted into homelessness.

Families need support to remain in their homes. Every Deputy deals on a daily or weekly basis with a number of people who have fallen into mortgage arrears, are dealing with banks or, in some instances, local authorities via shared ownership and are finding it difficult to reach a solution that would allow them to remain in their family homes. The problem is that, when people enter into those discussions on maintaining the family home, they often just get distant responses and the banks are flippant and arrogant in how they deal with them. Sometimes, banks are not willing to engage at all, preferring instead the heavy-handed approach of taking people to court for repossession. We know the irony of that. When people's homes are repossessed and they seek housing supports from local authorities, we know what the answer will be. Due to the current crisis, there is no support.

We must get real about this. We need an independent office that can in the first instance assist families in dealing with mortgages and find a constructive pathway to deal with arrears so that people can remain in their homes. There are different proposals and these can be considered constructively rather than in the negative and arrogant way that is currently being taken. People being put outside their own front doors by banks and then going to local authorities to be put on the housing list and get social supports through the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, housing assistance payment, HAP, or rent supplement is not a runner. There are no properties for them to rent. Even where there are properties, people find it difficult to pay their rents.

I call on the Government to consider this Bill in a positive way and accept it as a means of addressing the issue. Instead of the heavy-handed approach that we know from regular experience is being exercised by the banks, this Bill is about families being maintained in their homes so that they can continue existing in a proper environment.

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