Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government, which was elected by the people, wholeheartedly endorsed a voluntary code of practice on the transfer of mortgages which was drawn up by the Central Bank and considered to be best practice. At the time, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, said, "Notwithstanding its voluntary nature, I expect that best practice dictates that the code be applied by all institutions to all classes of residential property." Given all that is happening across the State, the Government still favours such a light touch to regulation despite the fact that these banks caused the economic crash, destroyed our economy and left the people to pick up the tab, a tab we will be paying for decades to come. The Minister knows that this code of practice on the transfer of mortgages meant nothing and means nothing.

It was not worth the paper it was written on and the Government knew that. The first line of the code provides that "a loan secured by the mortgage of residential property may not be transferred without the written consent of the borrower". The Government knew that meant nothing by virtue of the fact that the code was voluntary. There was nothing in place to force the banks to abide by the code of practice. This Government did not see fit to introduce legislation to stop the banks selling off family home loans to unaccountable vulture funds and it still does not see fit to do so. The families, the very people the Minister was elected to protect, the families behind these loans, do not feature in Fine Gael land.

Three months ago a State bank that was bailed out by the Irish people announced that it was selling over 6,000 family home loans to an unknown entity. These were loans belonging to families that had been engaging with the bank, some of whom had never missed an agreed payment but again, the Government did nothing. It sat there smugly and turned a blind eye. The Government continues to sit there while family home loans are being sold of to unaccountable vulture funds, ignoring the suffering of families. Government members ought to be ashamed of themselves. They are not ashamed, but they ought to be.

Sinn Féin has brought forward this Bill to stop banks selling off loans to unaccountable vulture funds. Every Deputy in this bubble who has a modicum of conscience should do the right thing and support this legislation. No consent, no sale.

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