Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the CEO of a vulture fund told its investors that Ireland is the gift that keeps on giving. By God did they get another gift yesterday when Ulster Bank announced that it was selling nearly 4,000 homes, including 3,200 family homes. There are up to 10,000 real people in those homes whose loans are now being sold to a vulture fund. The Taoiseach simply does not understand what happens when a loan goes to a vulture fund. I stood here and told him what happened with the last sale to a vulture fund by Ulster Bank. The fund sent letters to loan owners to tell them that they had to clear all of their loans, the €200,000 or €300,000, within 30 days. Banks do not do that. Vulture funds do because they only have a short-term interest. The Taoiseach said that he cannot dictate the pace of my legislation, the No Consent, No Sale Bill. Is it not true that the Taoiseach and the Government are doing their damnedest to try to block that using the mechanism of the money message? The Taoiseach's Government has facilitated this sale. The Fine Gael Government met the vulture funds 125 times. These are the same vultures that refused to come before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, to answer the questions of parliamentarians elected on behalf of the Irish people. The Taoiseach needs to act now. We need to stop this type of sale to vulture funds and to protect homeowners who need the protection of the State.

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