Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very concerned about certain sections of this Bill. Evicting people and families from their homes is wrong and should be avoided in every way possible. As Deputy Michael Collins said, sometimes it is done early in the morning or late at night. That is very unfair and can have an unsettling effect on families for the rest of their lives if it happens to them when they are young children.

I am concerned about the suggestion that private security firms would be allowed carry out these operations and I will not be voting for that in any way or fashion. It is totally wrong. We know what happened in cases where these people came down with their faces covered, frightened the living daylights out of people and put them out of their homes. Any suggestion of allowing that to happen would be wrong. I have faith in the sheriff in our county because people can talk to the man and he will see reason. He understands how people get into difficulties and he does everything he can to facilitate them and ensure an eviction is avoided. We should have people like that dealing with these cases. On the other hand are the security firms that only want to get people out of their homes as quickly as possible. They demand their fee and have no feelings or consideration at all for a family or how they got into trouble.

I have called previously for a system whereby, when a family is in trouble and cannot pay back the money for their home, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, together with the local authority, would buy that house and rent it back to the family in the same way a local authority house would be rented. In time, the family might get on their feet again and go into the tenant purchase scheme. One of the gripes I have with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is that the tenant purchase scheme has been all but abolished. That was a great scheme, where tenants could buy out the house when they got on their feet. In some cases with rural cottages, a farmer's son might have given over a site to a local authority to build the house and after a number of years, in nearly all such cases the house would be bought out under the tenant purchase scheme. Any house that has been built since 2015 is not allowed to be purchased by any tenant. Those are the rules in our local authority anyway. It is totally and absolutely wrong. I am calling on the Government to address this issue and ensure that decision is reversed.

Regarding vulture funds, it is my solid contention that the banks and lending institutions with which the homeowners dealt should not have handed their loan books over to the vulture funds or should not have been allowed to do so. It was not with them that the individuals dealt. They dealt with the manager of a bank or a lending institution of local, Irish origin. Our banks are not helping people very much, even though the State is involved and has large shareholdings in each of them. It is totally and absolutely wrong to think that a bank can hand over its loan book to vulture funds that do not care, except to scalp people and put them out on the road. That is wrong and the Government should be addressing it.

As Deputy Mattie McGrath said, the new thing is farms being sold before farmers know they are for sale at all. That is totally wrong and everyone knows that. There will be more farms for sale because in 2013 the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, told people to double milk production because milk was the new white gold and the Chinese were going to like it and were going to drink a lot of it. Now we hear they do not care for it and farmers are being told they must downsize their herds. The Irish Farmer's Journal stated that people are being told they will have to cut their herds by 51%. The Government is denying that but that is what will have to happen if it is going to meet its targets, which it says it has to do. I was the only Deputy here who voted against the Paris Agreement and the targets for 2030 back in 2016. I am not sorry for that. This Government will insist that farmers have to cut their production but look at all the money they have spent in the meantime. How are they going to pay it back if they are not allowed to sell their milk? An Taisce is now blocking one of the Glanbia outlets to which they can sell. Farmers are being told they are getting no assistance and to let An Taisce do what it likes. That is what is happening. More farms will be for sale if the Green Party and An Taisce get their way, in spite of the fact that the Minister told them in 2013 to increase production. He is still a Minister now.

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