Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is fine for the Minister for Finance to say because there are people in this House who may be able to withstand the types of shocks we have seen. However, we on the finance committee had two people before us yesterday. Both had their mortgages sold on from Permanent TSB to the vulture funds, which my legislation would have stopped, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael frustrated that. Those people are now in the grip of the vulture funds. They are now paying 7.25% and 7.5% and they know that their interest rates are going to go up later, when they get the letters through the doors in the coming weeks as a result of the recent ECB interest rate hikes, and they are likely to go up further. What that means for one individual, a bus driver here in the city of Dublin, is that his mortgage repayments have gone up by €8,400 per annum - before this interest rate hike happens and before the scheduled other ones that have been flagged by the ECB happen. That is the reality. They do not have until October when the Minister might decide to do something that might not come into effect until January of next year - if he does it at all. The reality is that these families need support now.

The Minister mentioned the Central Bank. The Central Bank said that 20% of all households with mortgages are facing an increase of €4,800 in servicing their mortgages as a result of these increases, and that was before the last two increases took effect. The Minister needs to get his head out of the sand. The Government needs to get its head out of the sand. This is not normal. People need support now.

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