Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will address a number of points raised by the Minister and the Minister of State. Several points were raised about equity. I understand these concerns and that is exactly why the scheme we are proposing is temporary and targeted. It provides relief on the increased interest costs that mortgage holders have faced as a result of rate hikes since June 2022 to ensure that those at the sharpest edge of the interest rate hikes are supported most. This is not blanket relief as existed before - the relief the Minister championed as recently as 2018 and the relief the Tánaiste called to be increased back in 2015. The proposal we are putting forward is not a reintroduction of the old scheme. It is more targeted and it is temporary. It would be effective in supporting households that face spiralling interest rates in the context of a cost-of-living crisis and aspiring home buyers struggling to get their foot on the property ladder. There were many mistakes that the Minister put forward in his contribution.

As has been said many times before, we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. With regards to cost, we believe an allocation of €400 million should be made towards the scheme. The Minister said his officials had costed it at €600 million for the full year. That may be the case but with our costing of €400 million, we are asking it to be extended until the end of this year. This is on the basis of a number of reasonable assumptions, including standard variable rates increasing by 2%, fixed rates increasing by 3% and tracker rates increasing further in the time ahead on mortgage loans provided by the retail banks. It should be noted that in this period, only AIB has increased its standard variable rate by 0.35%.

It also assumes the maximum relief is applied to all standard variable and tracker rate mortgages held by non-banks and vulture funds, an overestimation that is unlikely to materialise.

These are reasonable assumptions, just as the Government makes assumptions whenever it introduces a scheme. I remind Deputies that the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, was introduced with an allocation of €1.25 billion at a time no one knew if and how much energy prices would continue to rise. Had the maximum value of claims been made under the scheme, it would have cost the State €24 billion. The Government made that allocation on what it described as reasonable and appropriate assumption. That is fair enough and precisely what we have done. The Government cannot stand idly by as people are being hit by increase after increase in their mortgage costs in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. More than 43,000 variable mortgage borrowers with loans held by non-banks and vulture funds have seen significant hikes in their mortgage repayments with many seeing interest rates rise as high as 8%. Paying a mortgage on 8% is impossible. A family in County Mayo I have been in contact with has seen its monthly mortgage repayments go up by 30%. The mother told me these increases are not sustainable for them with the high cost of living and food costs increasing weekly. She now has to go back to work full time, which means facing high childcare costs. Her husband has a good job but they have nothing left to live on.

Workers cannot be told that they need to suffer inflation twice. First, they are hit with the spiralling cost of living. Then they are told that the only solution is higher mortgage payments. The cure to higher energy prices, higher food prices they are told is an increase in their mortgage costs. The Government has a responsibility to protect its citizens. The only way to do that in the necessary time frame in to introduce mortgage relief. It needs to be targeted to those that really need it and it needs to be time limited. This is a sensible and necessary measure. The Government must put aside party politics and work with Sinn Féin to bring in these supports.

It surprises me that so much kudos is given to the Central Bank and what it is saying in this situation. The Central Bank, ESRI, economists, taxation advisers and many other bodies and so on have said they did not recommend many of the housing schemes that have been introduced by the Government, they have been causing inflation to rise and they have put house prices beyond the reach of ordinary people. Are we now being told that we cannot do this very temporary and targeted measure because the Central Bank does not advise it? Are we be to believe that the Central Bank is going to encourage banks to act in the right way? The Minister of State and I were on the finance committee and we know from that and other places that we cannot rely on the banks to do the right thing.

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