Results 19,981-20,000 of 26,960 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Leaders' Questions (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Where are the mortgage-to-rent arrangements?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: How many have asked for the option?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I want to ask about buy-to-let arrangements and tenants in cases of receivership. While the set of problems concerning those who took out mortgages to buy their own homes has been highlighted, the plight of tenants who pay rent and have a reasonable expectation of security of tenure has not been highlighted to any great extent over the past year or two. They find that because their landlord...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Basically, as far as the bank is concerned, the criterion is the lease. Could the delegates tell me a little more? If I am reading the figures correctly, 2,675 buy-to-let properties are in arrears. I calculate that in the case of 1,600 of these, letters have been issued relating to rent-receiver or legal proceedings of some kind. This amounts to two thirds of the buy-to-let properties....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is what I want to clarify. I am dealing with cases on this issue. I cannot recall whether any of them deal with Ulster Bank. It is a pity I did not check before coming here today. The people I am dealing with receive a letter telling them rent receivers are taking over and that they are out. Under the residential tenancies legislation, there is supposed to be a four-year cycle once...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will try to hold Mr. Brown to that over the next while. Is the bank giving people back deposits where they are required to leave, for whatever reason?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Again, I will hold the delegation to that because not every bank is doing so. Let me refer specifically to those who are in many cases forced into voluntary surrender, by circumstance or by the bank. The cause remains to be seen. I wish to ask about the unemployed, in particular. People have lost their jobs and are dependent on social welfare through no fault of their own in most...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The bank has a solution.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Again, these are points we will hold the delegates to over the next while.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: My next point goes to the heart of many of the questions we are asked. Is it the case that the bank will not force individuals, even those who are unemployed or on the lowest income, out of their homes if they are willing to engage with the bank?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: With regard to mortgage-to-rent arrangements, the delegates stated one has been concluded.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Ulster Bank (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Deputy Higgins will go first.

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As has been said already today, as well as on many other occasions and reinforced by the groups before the finance committee last week, many of the so-called sustainable solutions are just demands for so-called voluntary surrender or, increasingly, an acceleration of repossession efforts. Lenders are not seriously implementing the mortgage-to-rent scheme, for example, which would be a way of...

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The point is that while some progress is being made, there is also a clear increase in the move to repossession proceedings. In the last two months of 2013, there were 3,331 proceedings for repossession, a significant increase the finance committee was told last week. As I already pointed out, there has been no serious effort to offer the mortgage-to-rent option for people on the lowest...

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 8. To ask the Minister for Finance if in the aftermath of reports that AIB are giving debt write downs to distressed mortgage holders, the actions he will take to require other banks to follow suit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16152/14]

Other Questions: Mortgage Arrears Proposals (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The news that AIB was offering write-downs to distressed mortgage holders was somewhat positive, but the submissions we received from groups such as FLAC, the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation and others last week showed that there was incredible inconsistency across the banks in dealing with mortgage holders in distress. They have stated a crisis that was in abeyance for the past few...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A total of 27% of households in which one person is working are suffering deprivation. Moreover, 10% of those in which two people are working are suffering deprivation. Consequently, in addition to the hundreds of thousands who have no work and are suffering poverty and deprivation, there is the significant phenomenon of the working poor, that is, those who are working long and hard but...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Ireland is a low-wage economy. Employee compensation as a percentage of total operating costs in Ireland stands at 22%, one of the lowest anywhere in Europe. It is considerably less for workers than is the case in Britain, France, Germany and most other European countries. Workers in this country, frankly, are being screwed against a backdrop in which productivity is high and profits are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is the logic of the race to the bottom.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Wage-setting Mechanisms (8 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: 5. To ask the Minister for Finance in the context of recent calls by trade unions and others for wage increases if he will consider a new wage policy to stimulate economic growth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16334/14]