Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Nearly 17 or 18 months ago, we sat down for 80 days of Government formation talks. The first issue that was agreed at those talks - the then Minister, Deputy Noonan, brought it to Revenue and it was given the green light - was for a one-stop-shop to be established for people whose homes were being repossessed and for legislation to be introduced so that people would be given the option of a split mortgage or a mortgage-to-rent scheme before a case could go to court. Sadly, this has never been done. Solving the problem is not complicated. If these options were given to people before a case could go to court, many problems would be eliminated.

A change to the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Acts might be necessary so as to give courts more power.

Our third option relates to housing agencies. Vulture funds are buying large amounts of property from the banks. We should have a housing agency and the banks should be prepared to sell it those houses at the same price. We must remember that people may be caught in the middle of all of this who might not be eligible for social housing.

This problem could be solved quickly if we wanted to solve it, but there is pressure. When one tries to negotiate with a bank, one sees that pressure is being applied by Europe to solve this. Basically, banks are just driving at people now.

Besides the family home, we must also remember the small family businesses around the country. The vultures are tackling the farming community. They bought many loans at 40% and 50% and are seeking 100% profits on them. That is unacceptable.

This situation could be solved quickly were the will there. This Bill is the way forward.

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