Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Back in the day there was a vicious form of corporal punishment known as birching. We heard about a new form of it today. AIB has a project named Project Birch. It is a plan to sell in early 2020 thousands of distressed mortgages secured on family homes. This is a majority State-owned bank. Does the Government stand over this plan? It should stop the sale. Vulture funds should be kept far away from family homes. There are alternatives. Loans could be restructured for those who might be able to pay. For those who will never be able to pay, the properties can be taken into public ownership and given to local authorities, which would mean that people could be kept in their homes knowing that they would be secure as renters. Is the Government prepared to stop the sale and keep family homes out of the hands of vulture funds?

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