Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Doherty and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion on mortgage interest hikes that are inflicting extraordinary hardship and suffering on tens and tens of thousands of homeowners and mortgage holders who are being crippled with these ten hikes over a short period of time. This has put many of them into a completely unsustainable situation about which the Government has done absolutely nothing to alleviate the suffering and hardship that they face. While there is so much we can say in here, I will say in all honesty to those who are impacted by the mortgage hike crisis and all those affected by the cost-of-living crisis, whether it is energy price hikes, the hikes in the cost of groceries, the rocketing rents that for many are now completely unaffordable for those who have been driven into homelessness with this cost-of-living and housing crises, that the best way to put pressure on the Government in advance of this budget is to get out on the streets on the cost-of-living coalition demonstration on 7 October where students, trade unionists, pensioners' groups, housing advocacy groups and many more will come out on the streets to demand the action that is necessary from this Government which it has so far refused to take.

The elephant in the room when it comes to the cost-of-living and housing crises, is that on one hand there is the hardship and suffering being suffered by mortgage holders, by people trying to pay their bills, people affected by the housing crisis, while on the other hand super profits are being recorded by the banks and the vulture funds. They are obscene, staggering profits. Bank of Ireland's pre-tax profits this year are up by 138%. This is absolutely extraordinary. Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and AIB reported €4 billion in profits in the first six months of this year.

We see a similar picture with the energy companies. In 2021 we were all shocked by the increase in ESB's profits to €679 million, only to see that last year they had increased to €847 million and this year they will go up even more. While people are being crucified, we are seeing a profits bonanza being enjoyed by the energy companies, the banks, by the big supermarket chains, by corporate landlords, developers and, in general, the corporate sector. There has been a quadrupling of corporate profits over the past ten years, while by some estimates average workers are down in real terms by about €10,000 a year.

I mention, for example, a taxi driver who was messaging me before this debate and whose mortgage is with a vulture fund. He is now paying an interest rate of more than 8% so his repayments have gone up by €500 a month. That is €6,000 in the year. That is on top of all of the other price hikes that we are talking about. There are tens of thousands of people now in that situation who are absolutely crucified because of the disgraceful decision to allow the banks that we bailed out to sell off tens of thousands of mortgages at a discounted price to these vulture funds that are now crucifying people and with the assistance of the European Central Bank, ECB, hiking up interest rates and crucifying people, supposedly to keep inflation down but of course if you are a mortgage holder it is a case of inflation going up. It is not going down but going up as you are being forced to pay €400, €500 or €600 extra a month in mortgage interest payments.

Sinn Féin's proposal of €1,500 mortgage interest relief obviously would be welcome relief in that context. However, we believe we should go further and that is why we have put down an amendment. Caps need to be put on mortgage interest rates to stop the profiteering of the banks. We have put forward a Bill to that effect. We also believe the vulture funds should be driven out of the Irish market. All of those loans that never should have sold to them should be reintegrated into the mainstream system and taken over. We still have a majority shareholding in AIB and Permanent TSB. These should become public not-for-profit banks. Those loans should be reintegrated into a public banking system where people will be given sustainable rates of interest and restructures that they can actually manage that will ensure they can keep the roof over their heads and they are not being crucified in the interests of banking profits or other corporate profit-hungry interests. Those things can and should be done.

I doubt the Government is going to do it because in the end it seems more interested in protecting the banks and the big corporate interests. I asked Gabriel Makhlouf at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach today why could we not cap mortgage interest? He said because it would affect competition in the market and we might not be able to attract more banks in. I just cannot believe that logic. Considering what competition meant during the Celtic tiger years, when all the banks, vulture funds, and non-bank entities were coming in. Did competition make things better? No, it caused a catastrophic crash. Similarly, what these vulture funds are doing now is ripping people off. They add absolutely nothing to the banking sector.

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