Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am delighted to be supporting the motion. It is a good motion and an opportune time for the Government to introduce mortgage relief for homeowners. Doing so would help to provide support for struggling homeowners who are facing significant increases in their mortgage costs. The ECB has increased its main lending rate six times since July 2022, with the latest increase being to 3.5%. This has resulted in more than 250,000 tracker mortgage borrowers experiencing immediate and significant increases in their mortgage payments. More than 43,000 variable rate mortgage loans are held by non-banks and vulture funds and those borrowers have seen significant increases in mortgage repayments, with the highest rates reaching 8%. Even the word "vulture" is anathema to any right-thinking person. We have almost completed lambing season and we know what vultures do to baby lambs. The former Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, welcomed the vulture funds to Ireland. Any party that would welcome vulture funds to Ireland now would need its head examined. The Government does not want to look after people in houses or those without houses who are struggling to get loans.

There was another announcement today. I welcome the Croí Cónaithe fund and so on but the whole situation in respect of development fees is the wrong approach. It would be far better to support small builders and homeowners who want to build their own houses. I am not anti-developer. The word "developer" does not have bad connotations for me, although it does for some people. It would be far better to support the daoine beaga and the daoine óga, however, and give the money to county councils. Now the county councils are going to be starved of finance. The Taoiseach told me the money is going to be reimbursed. The whole system is unwieldy and we do not know what impact it will have or where it will end. People who commenced houses in recent days will not qualify, while, at the other end, people who apply for planning tomorrow will wait 12 months for it to go to An Bord Pleanála and they, too, will miss out. There will be more angst and trauma.

The Government can do something meaningful in this area if it wants to do so. The motion should be accepted. I know the Government has tabled a countermotion but it does not want to help the ordinary small people - na daoine beaga. Fine Gael is a party of the rich and powerful and Fianna Fáil has gone the same way. The whole issue of the cost of living and the price of fuel relates to the Green Party. The Government wants to keep fuel prices high to keep people down. It is a phoney objective and it is wrong.

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