Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State knows, we are in the middle of a major housing and homelessness crisis which the Government is failing to address. In the midst of all of this, the Government is complicit in the sale of mortgages by Permanent TSB. The state is a major shareholder, owning 75% of the bank. The bank was bailed out by taxpayers’ money to the tune of €4 billion. Permanent TSB recently sold its Project Glas loan portfolio to Start Mortgages, an affiliate of the vulture fund, Lone Star. This portfolio contains 10,700 home loans that were originally considered by the bank to be non-performing. Of these 10,700 home loans, 7,400 are owner-occupier mortgages and 3,300 are buy-to-let properties. However, it has since emerged that the portfolio also includes performing loans. We are not talking about people who have mortgages and have not paid them in ten years; we are talking about people who are genuinely paying their mortgages and have painstakingly made prior arrangements with Permanent TSB which they have adhered to.

Sinn Féin was opposed to this sale and we called on the Government and Permanent TSB to stop it. The bank, being 75% State owned as well as having been bailed out by the State, should not use vulture funds to evade its responsibility to these people and nor should the Government, as its primary shareholder. A typical example of these cases, which came to the attention of my constituency office recently, is that of a husband and wife who have resided in their house in Finglas for more than 20 years and who have their four children and a grandchild living with them. One child is disabled. The husband is in full-time secure employment, he has a mortgage of just over €100,000, and he has an agreed amount to pay per month and is currently up to date with his repayments. In fact, the husband has offered to increase his payment from the agreed amount to pay off what he still owes in a shorter time.

If their house is repossessed, a family of seven, including a disabled person, will be made homeless. This individual has had his mortgage sold to this vulture fund and it is causing him and his family great uncertainty and distress. Based on the cases I have received representations on in my constituency office, Permanent TSB has been duplicitous in not adhering to these arrangements by agreeing to sell the mortgages to these vulture funds. The bank said that if a borrower has agreed a restructure or an alternative payment arrangement and that they have consistently made payments in line with the terms of the restructure, then these terms will be honoured by Start Mortgages. What guarantee do we have that Start Mortgages will honour these arrangements made with borrowers and that no one will lose their homes? Additionally, another solution is that Permanent TSB could have looked to the local authorities to put in place a buy-to-rent scheme.

We need answers on this. There is a responsibility on the Minister of State and the Government to address this issue. What has the Minister of State done to address this issue?

See this speech in context