Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 35.

In page 23, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “Report on Mortgage Interest Relief

14. The Minister shall, within one month of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of temporary mortgage interest relief, available in respect of mortgages on principal private residences, applied at source on a monthly basis and equivalent to 30 per cent of the difference in interest paid in the relevant month relative to interest paid in the relevant month under the interest rate charged to the relevant mortgage in June 2022, capped at a maximum benefit of €1,500 per relevant household, for a period of 12 months.”.

This is another example of where Sinn Féin is again setting the agenda and leading the charge. For quite a while now Government has resisted the idea of mortgage interest relief, just as it did in terms of support for renters. Finally, it has introduced mortgage interest relief. This is quite late in the day. It should have been introduced much earlier, particularly when people were getting those increases month on month. There have been ten increases for people on tracker mortgages and many of those with vulture funds and there is no support for them until 2024 when this will be operational.

In the past, mortgage interest relief was deducted at source. This could and should have been done earlier. However, there is never a wrong time to do the right thing and Government has finally accepted Sinn Féin's wisdom in relation to putting this forward. As I said in relation to the rent tax credit, again the Government adopted a Sinn Fein proposal, but made a hames of it by not banning rent increases. The Minister seems to be consistent because he is doing the same for mortgage interest relief.

There are a number of issues. First, it is at 20% when it should be up 30%. Second, the maximum benefit should be €1,500 as opposed to €1,250, but crucially up to 137,000 homeowners should not have been excluded from this relief. It is appalling and disgraceful that the Minister has done this and there is no justification for it. I have given examples of people who will now not get a penny of mortgage interest relief because of the threshold the Minister has introduced. Many of them will have seen their mortgage increase by up to €2,000. They will get no support whatsoever from this measure. They could be low income individuals or families suffering under other burdens, such as energy costs. There is nothing in these measures for them.

This is cruel because despite a campaign we had going since this time last year to get Government to introduce mortgage interest relief, those homeowners finally saw Government see sense and accept what Sinn Féin was saying and bring forward mortgage interest relief only then to find out in the detail of it that they were among the 137,000 people who could be excluded from the scheme simply because the balance of their mortgage was less than €80,000 at the end of last year. This is a number which makes no sense whatsoever because these individuals still have payments to make. They have seen their payments increase as a result of the ECB increases and, therefore, there should be a cost of living support for them. This is what this is. It is a direct cost of living support for this purpose.

There will be individuals who will get this relief and who will have seen their interest increase less than the 137,000 people were locked out of the scheme. Because they had a balance of greater than €80,000 on their mortgage this time last year, they will be eligible for it. People who have had a €1,000 increase in their interest will get benefit and those who had a €2,000 increase will not because the Minister has adopted this arbitrary figure, which makes no sense.

I do not know if this is just being petty. Perhaps it is a case of people in Fianna Fáil saying, "We are not going to give it to the Shinners who pushed us into this over the last year because we do not want to acknowledge they were right" and asking, "How do we try to change it to make it look as if it is not a Sinn Féin proposal?" Instead of giving 30%, they will give 20% and instead of giving €1,500, they will give €1,250. Instead of giving it to all those who need it, they will actually exclude 137,000 people because they have a balance of less than €80,000.

It is petty, cruel and vindictive and it should have been changed in the finance Bill. The resources are there to support these families. This is not a recurring scheme but a one-off scheme, yet the Minister has decided that restrictions are needed.

I spoke about energy credits. The Government has brought forward energy credits in the past which went to 60,000 holiday homes and there was no concern about making sure this money did not go to people who are not living in their homes permanently. As a result of the policies introduced, there are many accounts that have a positive balance in regard to energy because it was not targeted. That scheme should have been targeted. These are people who have actually seen an increase. Nobody will get support through mortgage interest relief unless the mortgage interest has increased, and that should have been the target, in my view. This is a Government that is seeing the light of day late in the day on this issue. I know the Minister will get to his feet and say that he was always going to consider it in the finance Bill. I have taken part in numerous debates, including with the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, where this was ruled out. It was said that it cannot be done due to house prices and all the arguments we had heard before in regard to rent relief until the Government saw the light on this as well. I could give other examples.

The core part of this amendment is that this measure is wrong. It is wrong to lock out 137,800 mortgage accounts. There are actually more than that locked out as a result of this measure but the Department estimates that some 137,000 have seen an interest increase in their bills. The Minister will say that some of them have top-up loans and they are already covered, but they will be few and far between. Many of these people are those whose loans were sold to the vultures because the Minister’s party ensured that is what happened. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael grouped together to make sure the pathway was cleared for banks to sell the loans to the vultures and they are now in the hands of the vultures. Because they have a balance of €80,000, the message from the Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is paddle your own canoe because we are not supporting you in relation to mortgage interest relief. As I said, it is cruel, vindictive and petty and it should be changed.

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