Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Maire and Sean are a married couple in my constituency in Dublin Mid-West. They both work, and they have worked their entire adult lives in modest wage jobs. They get up early in the morning and they work hard, and they raised their now adult son exceptionally well. In their entire life they had never missed a mortgage payment until Permanent TSB unreasonably hiked up its interest rates and put them into difficulty. What did they do? They did what any responsible mortgage holder would do. They engaged the banks immediately. They sat down with them, went through the mortgage arrears resolution process and came out on the other side of that with a split mortgage. They have met every single payment under the terms of that agreement since it was reached. Their intention was always to return to full payments and eventually honour the full loan they took out to buy their family home.

In November last, they contacted me at a time when they were trying to see when they could return to full payments. They had received a letter from their lender to say their mortgage was due to be sold. They were not told to who, for how much or the consequences of that. That family have said to me repeatedly that they feel let down by their lender but also by the failure of the Government to protect them. They are now in a position where they simply do not know what will happen. Three months on, they still have not been contacted by their new lender and they are genuinely fearful that they could lose the home for which they worked so hard.

If this Bill passes here today, it comes too late for Maire, Sean and their son, and the other families who have been left in this position, but there are many more families like these people who can be protected. I have not heard any argument as to why the Minister would not pass this legislation. As Deputy Doherty has said, we are looking forward to hearing what other Members have to say but I say to Government that if it opposes this Bill, it is not only letting down all of these families but demonstrating clearly that it has no moral compass when it comes to protecting families that work hard, pay their bills and expect the Government to take their side. I imagine there are many Government backbenchers who will be squirming in their seats on Thursday when the vote on this Bill is being taken.

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