Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we discuss vulture funds and the stress they are causing to thousands of people, I cast my mind back to and reflect on the property advertisements 15 years that ago sold people a utopian dream. Property supplements in the national and local newspapers ended up being bigger than the newspapers and there were advertisements by the banks, one bigger than the next, offering, ultimately, 100% mortgages. The advertisements sold people the dream of owning an idyllic home. In many cases, the homes were outside Dublin in commuter towns such as mine in County Meath. With every passing month, the price of homes included in the advertisements became bigger and bigger, as did the dream being sold. However, what the advertisements were spinning has not come to pass for many of the commuter towns being marketed. In my county dreams of having things such as a rail line to Navan have been snuffed out by the Government's new capital plan. Therefore, even for those who can afford to service their mortgage, the supporting infrastructure they were promised for their families is not in place. For the thousands more struggling to finance their mortgages which the banks beat them in the door to give them in the first place, the dream has turned sour. Banks that could not give enough sugar candy to get customers in the door in the first place in order that they could give them all of the money in the world have now, courtesy of the sale of mortgages to vulture funds, suddenly turned into the dentist looking to extract every tooth clean out of their heads. One begins to wonder if we dreamed it. Did we dream meeting the bank manager 15 years ago when he or she was clearing his or her schedule in his diary to bring people in? Now it is not possible to meet him or her; nor is it possible to meet a human being to try to work out an equitable deal because the loan has been thrown at the sharks.

I have raised with the Taoiseach the fact that two weeks ago a viable SME in my home town of Navan was put out of business. At 7 a.m., while it was still dark, a vulture fund seized a manufacturing building. When the staff arrived at 7.30 a.m., they were told to go home. The owner had pleaded with the fund to try to work out a solution to the debt problem, given that he had a viable business. However, it swooped and 15 people lost their jobs. Acting to defend citizens must fall within the remit of the Dáil because their protection from the hell the banks have created is essential.

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