Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mortgage arrears have doubled under this Government. It is about time the Government took this issue seriously because it has not dealt with it at all.

While Senator Hayden’s comments were very well thought out and based on her experience, I was disappointed to hear her look forward to the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013. In my view, that Bill is an abomination and it is an abomination that the Labour Party would be introducing legislation to reintroduce repossessions into this country when nothing has been done in regard to unemployment or to protect the family home. That legislation is shocking in its brevity and cruelty. Repossessions will start as soon as that legislation comes into place and there is nothing for the family homeowner, for families or, indeed, for the buy-to-let sector, about which Senator Hayden made points with which I agree.

That legislation must be opposed and shot down. The Labour Party must look at what it is bringing in. What is happening in that legislation is that the Government wants to revert to how the law stood before the Dunne judgment. However, it does not seem to be aware of the fact the conveyancing textbooks are critical of the law that applied before the Dunne judgment in that there is no discretion in court as to whether or not to grant a repossession or what options should be offered to people. The only discretion in that Bill is the discretion to go through the personal insolvency legislation. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, was in this House in July 2011 when I and Senator MacSharry brought forward the Family Home Bill, which was intended to give judges options and discretion in repossession cases. That Family Home Bill 2011 was designed to address a defect in the law that existed at that time, before the Dunne judgment, which the Government now proposes to go back to. It is madness. Nothing is being done for the family homeowner and families in arrears.

The mortgage-to-rent scheme is a total sham. I believe 13 cases have happened throughout the country or are in progress. A Louth county councillor whom I spoke to yesterday raised the issue of how many cases were in process in Louth and was told there was one but nothing has happened in regard to it. This is a sham and it is about time we stopped talking about it. People have come to my clinics in recent weeks wondering how they get onto this mortgage-to-rent scheme. The truth is, and Senator Hayden alluded to this in some sense, that one cannot get onto the mortgage-to-rent scheme. It is not possible to do so because, even if the banks want to do it, the local authorities do not want to do it, or, if the local authorities want to do it, the banks do not want to do it. The borrower, or the person in the family home facing repossession, cannot do anything about it and does not have any choice in the matter, but they are given this hope that turns out to a sham - this hope that turns to despair.

I have a serious difficulty with the row-back on the code of conduct for the financial institutions in regard to mortgage arrears. The fact is this is the only protection from the banks available to borrowers in arrears. Despite the amendment's criticism of the previous Government, that code of conduct dates back to the previous Government. In point of fact, apart from the Personal Insolvency Act, which is not even in force yet, that is the only protection for people in arrears and nothing whatsoever has happened under this Government. That is a matter of recorded fact. What the Government is proposing to do is to row back on that and to give the banks more powers. That is wrong.

Why does the code of conduct only apply to regulated banks while the much heralded Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013 that is being brought in will apply to any bank, financial institution or local authority which holds a mortgage? They will all be given the power to repossess a property, absolutely full square under statute of this Oireachtas, but the only protections that apply for anybody else only apply in terms of the Central Bank supervisory function for the banks the Central Bank supervises. There is no legal protection in this country if the person is with a bank that is not regulated by the Central Bank. Moreover, if the person is with a bank that is regulated by the Central Bank, his or her only recourse is to complain to the Central Bank because the person has no course of action in a court against the bank, and no test case can be brought by a voluntary organisation like Threshold or FLAC because there is no protection under statute.

We have put forward protections and put forward many pieces of legislation, the latest being the Mortgage Resolution Bill. We had put forward the Family Home Bill in the Seanad which was designed to give the courts the power to protect families and to provide options, but the Government rejected this and told us it would be all sorted out in six months. Nothing has happened. It is about time the penny dropped with the Members opposite, who must realise that nothing has happened and tell the Government this. We need to do something about this because it is a major drag on the economy, people cannot afford to spend money because of their mortgage situation and the banks are still in a state of limbo, despite the fact they have been given billions or euro to deal with the issue. However, the Government seems quite happy to let the banks do what they want, whether it is in regard to interest rate reductions, branch closures or dealing with people on a case-by-case basis, which is the Government's preference.

I ask the Government, if it is bringing in the repossession law to give all of the financial institutions, including banks and other lenders, that power, to please bring in a law to protect people and not just a Central Bank code of conduct. I am pleading with the Government to finally understand the scale of this problem because, in my view, the Government does not understand it.