Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A mortgage break has to happen. It is absolutely unacceptable that the people who will be hit hardest by the lockdown in economic terms, losing either income or employment, will then also potentially have some of the banks crawling all over their backs, adding to the pressure and stress they face. When people talk about protecting mental health, let us be clear what that means in many cases. Often mental health is about the stress of not being able to pay one's mortgage, rent or bills and the uncertainty of possibly losing one's home. There is nothing that will damage one's mental health more than that. If we are all in it together, the Taoiseach has to act with might and main to ensure that the banks do not crawl all over people's backs or load up debts during the coming period. If we can bring in emergency legislation to bail out banks, as we did a few years ago, we can bring in emergency legislation or do whatever is necessary in order to tell the banks they will not load up debt or harass people during possibly one of the most difficult periods in their lives. The Government has to do this; otherwise, it will wreck the sense of social solidarity we need. Similarly, simply reimposing the ban on evictions during level 5 restrictions is not good enough because it will mean that notices to quit can be issued and then, four or five weeks before Christmas, there will be a slew of evictions. That is totally unacceptable, so the Taoiseach has to do something about it.

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