Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome this. It is very important. Like others, I have spoken to people who have been treated absolutely abysmally by some of these credit servicing firms. These include people who have been harassed or who have tried to get out of the situation and tried to sell. On contacting the firms to say they want to sell, they have been told that if they want to talk about that, then they will be charged a fee. They have not had recourse. These people, who have been trapped in these situations - that is their language - have over the past 15 years effectively paid off the vast bulk of the value of their mortgages in real terms, but because of the punitive interest rates they have been subjected to, they are still trapped with very heavy mortgage payments that they cannot get out of. They cannot see a route out of this for themselves at any point. I have been contacted by people in situations where they have been looking to sell but have had grave difficulties getting back possession of deeds from the credit servicing firm. These are all people whose mortgages were sold on for values of maybe 30% or 40%, yet they are shown no co-operation or leniency and, in fact, are treated in a very punitive way. This has a huge impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

This legislation allows people some recourse and it is welcome that the loophole is being shut, but much more needs to be done on the entire area to help people in situations who have been really aggressively pursued. There are media reports today that another ECB rate cut is due. One of these credit servicing firms has made no cuts to its rates at all over five ECB rate cuts. They are charging people punitive rates that are grossly unfair and they never signed up for. That also has to be addressed.

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