Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say at the outset that people have a responsibility to repay their debts. If people borrow money, they have a responsibility to pay it back. That is true for mortgage holders, farmers and business people. If people do not pay back their debts, they are causing social harm. Farmers not paying back their debts means that is harder for other farmers to get credit and that they have to pay higher interest rates when they do. Business people not paying back their debts also has an effect in that it will be harder for other business people to get credit and that they will also have to pay higher interest rates when they do. People not paying back their mortgage debts also makes it harder for other people to get mortgages in the first place and it will also mean that they will also have to pay higher interest rates when they do. We need to be frank and honest about the fact that people not paying back their debts causes social harm to others. It is not just a case of not paying money back to the banks or other financial institutions.

Having said that, I believe strongly that people who make an honest and reasonable effort to pay back their debts as best they can, whether that means over a prolonged period or by means of a restructuring of the debt, should be facilitated. Nobody wants to see anybody losing a home, a business or a farm. Generally speaking, the courts are sympathetic in those circumstances. I do not see how a sale of a farm or a business could occur if there had not already been repossession hearings in a court, because that would have to happen first. Courts in Ireland do not grant repossession orders lightly. The number of such orders granted is very low. It must be borne in mind, therefore, that many protections already exist. I encourage people to engage with personal insolvency practitioners and banks and financial institutions to try to find a solution to their debts, where that occurs.

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