Results 19,901-19,920 of 26,924 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I put it to Mr. Boucher that it is unbelievably cruel that the bank chases people who have lost everything for money that it knows they do not have. What is its purpose in doing that when it knows it will be unable to get any money from the people concerned? What is the purpose in taking to court a person whose only income is from social welfare benefits and trying to get from him or her,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Mr. Boucher's responsibility is to the bank's shareholders.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Therefore, the bank chooses to torture people from whom it knows it cannot get money?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What the bank is doing could not be described as anything other than punishment. What it is doing is punishing people because it knows they cannot pay, but it still demands that they do so, including by bringing the legal system down on top of them to force them to pay. There is no word describe it other than "punishment".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: But the bank is still going to chase them for more money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On the buy-to-let sector, I have made the following point to all of the banks. There are many people who are tenants of landlords who owe money to the banks. They are innocent victims in all of this in that they are paying rent to their landlords who have gone bust. The banks have several thousand of these landlords on their books and commenced repossession proceedings in respect of some...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Often a person could be a party to a one year lease agreement which then expires, but because these things often operate on an informal basis, he or she expects to continue paying rent and remain in the property. The Residential Tenancies Act provides for a four-year cycle in terms of tenancy, which means that a person could expect security of tenure for three or four years. However, the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I appeal to the bank to do so. I hope we do not have cause to meet the delegates again to discuss the eviction of thousands of tenants by the bank.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. There are 3,400 repossessions and legal actions of one sort or another in the pipeline. Can the witnesses assure us that Bank of Ireland is actively trying to give people in those cases every option besides having their homes taken off them? Will the witnesses tell us a bit about how Bank of Ireland interacts with the group of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Bank of Ireland re-engages with the customers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Oddly enough, and perhaps running counter to my instincts and impulses and some of the questioning, I actually believe the banks. It is not in their interests to repossess people and they are under a great deal of pressure. Mr. Mason mentioned that Bank of Ireland reaches some arrangement in nine out of ten cases. What about the one to which it cannot offer a solution, even if that is what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What kind of person is that? These are people who are trying to make an arrangement with Bank of Ireland but for whom it does not believe there is a solution, having examined their situations. Is that what is happening?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: At that point the bank moves to get their houses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Why would mortgage-to-rent not be an option? I presume we are discussing people who are on low incomes or have lost their jobs and are dependent on social welfare. Would Bank of Ireland offer people in such situations a mortgage-to-rent option? Why would they refuse it, why might it not be suitable or what might be the problem?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is something we could consider.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: There is much that is thrown at the banks that we should be the ones considering. I do not approve of some of the banks' actions, but they have been given the power to do them and are probably behaving rationally from their own point of view. The criteria for mortgage-to-rent solutions might rule some people out, at which time Bank of Ireland moves towards repossession.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: From what the witnesses have told me, I am angry about what appears to be their approach to residual debt. Using the previous example of someone who has lost a job or is on a low income, took out a mortgage in good faith, is a victim of the economic collapse, has a family and so on, if that person is forced to give the bank his or her family home, which is an awful thing to have to do for an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process: (Resumed) Bank of Ireland (10 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am asking the witnesses in all honesty. I will not give the banks credit, but I acknowledge that, in my experience, they have not been moving for wholesale repossessions. This is not particularly because they are nice, but because it would not be in their interests. Where someone has no option and is forced to give up the family home because there is no sustainable solution available, it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (9 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I accept the committee is bound by its Standing Orders and is not allowed to second-guess the Ombudsman or the courts, which is reasonable. My understanding of this case is that the person has a lot of evidence that his good name has been taken. That seems to have been acknowledged in the report of the Ombudsman. I am baffled by the case and the fact that quite senior politicians seem to...

Wind Turbine Regulation Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (9 Apr 2014)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is good news that the Government is not opposing this Bill, and I commend Sinn Féin on its introduction. For the most part it is a tribute to the people in the midlands - in Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and elsewhere - who have campaigned and forced this issue onto the agenda. Neither they nor I are opposed to the development of renewable energy resources, but major questions arise in...