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

I thank the Minister for the clarification. I will forward him an email on what some local authorities are doing. The one thing that we have not addressed is the situation I referred to in middle Ireland. There is nothing available if one is above the threshold. The banks try to tick boxes but after that there is no solution for many of those people. Ironically, I got a text while we were talking about a 70 year old who owes €16,000 and the bank has said the person must get out of the house as there is no provision for people when they are over 70.

People could owe €200,000 and a vulture fund might have bought the property for €110,000 or even as little as €80,000. Those people would fully function in Ireland at €150,000 but the problem is that one cannot get one's hands on money, as Deputy McGuinness pointed out. It is like someone who has a disease; the other banks do not want to touch such a person no matter how much one tries. We must ensure we introduce measures to help people. If someone makes a settlement with a bank or vulture fund that is recorded. If one looks for money one hears everything back and that puts a wobble on things when it should not because if one gets loan clearance then one has a chance of making money.

I welcome the Bill and the input of Deputy Michael McGrath and the Minister, but we have other parts of the jigsaw to try to put together if we are to bring people back to live without fear. Day in and day out we see the fear and trauma, the break-up of families and hardship. Unfortunately, sometimes we see worse than that.

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