Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is a very important issue, and I want to recognise it. Many things have been said here tonight. Deputy McGuinness spoke about distressed mortgages, as did other Members. There are many distressed people out there, many of whom are on the verge of suicide. I thank Deputy Michael McGrath on behalf of the many hundreds of people whose mortgages will, hopefully, be resolved as a result of our actions here tonight. There are decent, honest people out there. Some 99% of Irish people are decent, honest people. Some of them got in over their heads, unfortunately, because of the price of property. That was not their fault, but they are trying to cope. I am aware of people who do not even know who owns their mortgages at this point in time. Some people are trying to deal with vulture funds with personal insolvency practitioners and solicitors. The vulture funds are not responding to the representatives of these people, and we all know that the people themselves cannot correspond with them because the funds will not speak to them either. In the meantime these funds are charging 7% interest on overdrawn mortgages. People defaulted somewhere along the line and the funds are charging them whatever they like. In the meantime property prices are going up as well. People are being attacked from all sides, and the banks do not care. There is no respect whatsoever for the people who have suffered so much, despite the fact that the banks were all bailed out, as the Minister pointed out. We will be paying the price for a long time to come. I hope we get the money back from the banks because we deserve to get it back.

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