Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We all know people who have had to cut corners to pay their bills, to keep food on the table and to ensure their children are properly dressed and fed throughout the cost-of-living crisis. Among those households are those with mortgages. They have seen their mortgage payments soaring by thousands of euro a year because of the European Central Bank’s response to inflation, which is to raise interest rates. This has happened six times between July 2022 and March 2023 with the bank increasing its interest rate from 0% to 3.5%.

Over 250,000 tracker mortgage customers have seen immediate and sudden increases in the cost of their mortgage but for the 43,000 variable rate mortgage holders whose loans are held by non-banks and vulture funds, the situation can be even worse with some witnessing a surge in their interest rates of up to 8%. I am aware of people who are genuinely fearful about how long they will be able to shoulder this burden. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service summed it up by saying “the interest rate hikes serve as a particularly alarming trend during a cost-of-living crisis and are having disastrous effects”. This is being proven by the constituents who have contacted me and others in this House desperate for help in meeting their repayments while also meeting their other obligations. What about first-time buyers? Many of them have faced, and many more are likely to face, significantly higher mortgage repayments in the time ahead.

The pressure on these families is immense. Is this Government going to wait until their home is something they are no longer able to afford? With the State expected to run a surplus of more than €10 billion in 2023, is the Government seriously going to continue with its policy of delay and inaction or will it intervene for the benefit of our citizens? Unfortunately, it seems as though the Government is willing to allow people to struggle but Sinn Féin is not. We are proposing temporary and targeted mortgage interest relief until the end of the year. This would involve absorbing 30% of the increased interest costs facing mortgage borrowers and would be based on the interest rate charged in June 2022 capped at a maximum relief of €1,500. We have fully costed this measure and would allocate €400 million towards it. We have factored in a high bar in further increases that would more than likely result in the cost of the scheme being less than we are providing for. We cannot allow people to be left to fend for themselves amid this turbulent time. We urge the Government to act

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