John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

What will I say about the Sinn Féin contribution? If one strips away the rhetoric of concern, the Sinn Féin contribution is pure political point scoring and does not merit another mention.

What is a sustainable mortgage? It has been said that a sustainable mortgage is one that requires no more than 35% of income to service it, but even FLAC and New Beginnings have pointed out that this may not be applicable in every case. People with higher incomes may be able to afford to service a mortgage with 35% of their income, but people with lower incomes or no income at all will not be able to do that. That points to the complexity of the issue we are grappling with and trying to sort out. I am depressed about the willingness of the banks to see this problem in all aspects of its complexity. I think the banks have been mean-spirited and very narrow in their interpretation. We have seen this at our clinics. The Sinn Féin Party does not have a monopoly, but all parties see distressed people at their clinics. Yesterday, on one of the more popular RTE radio shows, a caller rang in to say that one of the banks, which was not named, had insisted on the couple selling their house because the price would cover the loan. They sold their house and paid back the loan but the bank then charged them €12,000 for early settlement of the mortgage. That points to mean-spiritedness and we need to take cognisance of it.

There are four elements to our approach in attempting to resolve debt, but I wish to dwell on one element. The guidelines for the personal insolvency legislation were leaked in reports in the public domain. I do not know whose interest is being served by giving such detailed information about the proposed guidelines because we know they have not been discussed by Cabinet yet. By publishing these type of guidelines stating exactly the level of income lenders will allow people to have and what lifestyle that will allow people seems to suggest that the banks are in a position to state the guidelines have been leaked from the Government and this is what the Government is prepared to tolerate. I think we need to go back and state clearly that this Government will not tolerate the meanness, narrow-minded and mean-spirited interpretation of some of these rules that will allow the banks to take half of people's income over €250 per week. What incentive will anybody have to do something for themselves if that is the case? We need to take this back to Government. I spoke about this issue at our parliamentary party meeting this morning. I think it is absolutely shocking that such information is being leaked. Whose interests are being served by leaking this information? These leaks are not in the interests of the people of Ireland.

One would think intuitively that those in the age cohort of 30 to 40 years would be most affected by the mortgage crisis. However, I read a report recently that shows that the age group who are mostly affected are those aged between 30 years and 50 years. This age group are conventionally considered to be the most productive. I am not going to ignore the personal plight of people who are in debt, but from the societal point of view, those in the 30 to 50 years age cohort are most productive and consequently the highest spenders in any economy. These people are now over burdened by household and personal debt.

We are making a good start but we need to get on with this work.