Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

Will the Deputy Leader impress upon the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the need for the Government to use its influence with the banks, particularly those which are in State ownership, to encourage them to take part in the resolution process relating to the residents of Priory Hall? She will be aware that the process, which is being chaired by Mr. Justice Finnegan, was announced on Friday last. The residents and Dublin City Council welcomed the process and have indicated that they will take part in it. In the absence of the mortgage lenders involved, there is not much point in the process proceeding because it will not be possible to reach any kind of resolution. I raised the matter of the position of Priory Hall residents vis-À-vis their mortgages on a number of occasions in the House. I did so for the first time on 20 October of last year, just after the residents had been evacuated from their homes.

As Members are aware, this is a special situation. I appreciate that there are general provisions in respect of people who have difficulty paying their mortgages as a result of a loss of or reduction in income or of being made unemployed. However, the residents of Priory Hall are in an entirely different category. This matter has nothing to do with a loss of income, it relates to the fact that their homes are uninhabitable. These people are being asked to pay mortgages on properties in which they cannot live. In fact, they do not know whether they will ever be able to return to those properties. There has been a complete lack of a co-ordinated response to this matter to date. Some mortgage lenders have paused people's repayments while others have not. Those who have had their repayments paused are not paying their mortgages on a monthly basis but the interest on those mortgages is still accruing. As a result, the amount owed on such mortgages is increasing on a monthly basis. In addition to all of the other stresses they are experiencing, the residents could be faced where, in a year or two, the amount of interest due on their mortgages may have risen by €20,000 or €30,000.

As already stated, I have raised this matter in the House on previous occasions. I wrote to the Taoiseach almost a month ago and requested that at the Economic Management Council's meeting with the banks, the Government should ask that there be a co-ordinated response, under the auspices of the Irish Banking Federation or some other group, to ensure that a fair and consistent approach is taken by the banks. All I received in respect of the correspondence to which I refer was an acknowledgement. I ask that the Deputy Leader use her good offices and her influence with members of the Cabinet to ensure the Government uses its influence on this issue in order that a fair solution might be arrived at. There is concern about this matter on all sides of the House and it has been raised by other Members in the past.