Seanad debates

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage

 

6:00 pm

Photo of Trevor Ó ClochartaighTrevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Táim ag éisteacht go cúramach le gach a bhfuil le rá ar seo. Almost 190,000 households are in mortgage distress and almost one in four residential mortgage holders are unable to meet their repayments. Some are in arrears for extended periods of time while others are in reduced payment schemes but one in four are unable to repay their mortgage debt and the numbers are rising. While this problem was created by Fianna Fáil, it has got significantly worse since Fine Gael and the Labour Party took office. The number of struggling mortgage holders has doubled. Many of us cringe when we hear Fianna Fáil Senators and Deputies offer solutions to a crisis they created and then refused to tackle when last in government.

However, Fianna Fáil's role in this crisis does not absolve the current Government of its responsibilities. Fine Gael and the Labour Party have continually talked about giving priority to addressing the mortgage crisis and we heard it here again today but it took it almost two years to publish the Personal Insolvency Act, which is the centrepiece of its response to this crisis. After all its talk of protecting the family home and standing up to the banks, what did the Government do? It did what Fianna Fáil did when it was in office and allowed the banks to dictate the agenda. In fact, it did something worse. It gave lenders a cast-iron veto over any solutions to individual distressed mortgages. These same banks have done virtually nothing to assist struggling family home owners since this crisis erupted and many have made things worse by hiking up interest rates on variable rate mortgages.

To add insult to injury, the establishment of the personal insolvency service has been much delayed. We still have no idea when personal insolvency practitioners will be on the ground working with distressed families. Not a week goes by without more bad news for mortgage holders such as rate increases, regressive changes to the mortgage arrears code of conduct and delays to the personal insolvency service. This is hurting families and the local economy and is, without doubt, a major contributor to the ongoing recession.

In response to this growing crisis, what does the Government do? Does it force the banks to step up to the plate and help struggling families? Does it take away the banks' veto over insolvency arrangements? Does it give the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator the powers to insist that ECB interest rate reductions are passed on to mortgage customers? No, it does not. Instead, it brings forward a Bill that makes it easier to evict struggling families from their homes. This is what the Bill before us is about. It is not just removing an unintended loophole from earlier legislation. It is not about ensuring that legitimate repossessions can take place from so-called strategic defaulters. Plain and simple, it is an eviction charter with one simple purpose - to empower the banks to take people's family homes.

The Minister and the Government should be ashamed of themselves. They should be ashamed of the additional burden of stress and uncertainty they are heaping on struggling mortgage holders. If they had held this legislation back until the personal insolvency service was up and running and the number of families in mortgage distress was falling, Sinn Féin may have taken a different approach. I note that this was a proposal put forward by Senator Hayden. We accept that there are occasions and exceptional circumstances when repossession is necessary but to give the banks these powers now while the mortgage crisis continues to rage all around us is not only bad policy but bad ethics.

The Government is rewarding the banks for their intransigence and their failure to do the right thing by their mortgage customers but then, since taking office, the Government has really changed its tune on the banks. It talked tough on remuneration when in opposition but rolled over once in office. It is almost halfway through its term of office and we still have no banking inquiry. What the Bill before us today makes clear is that when it comes to the banks, Fine Gael and the Labour Party are no different to Fianna Fáil. Senator Bradford noted the single transferable speech. I think the previous Government might have left behind some of its single transferable speeches and they were picked up by this Government. When the banks say "Jump", this Government, like its predecessors, says "How high?" Sinn Féin will oppose this Bill and I urge all other Senators to do likewise. I note Senator Hayden's comments and I agree with a lot of what she had to say. If we are to oppose this route of dealing with this scenario, the best way to delay this is to vote against it and I call on Senator Hayden and other Senators in her party to do so.

Tá an Bille seo náireach. Ba cheart go mbeadh náire ar an Rialtas leis an rud atá á dhéanamh aige. Níl sé ag dul i ngleic leis an bhfadhb. Tá fadhb na morgáistí ag dul in olcas. Tá sé ag méadú in aghaidh an lae agus níl an Rialtas ach ag leanacht an bhóthair céanna, ag leanacht na n-amadán a chuaigh rompu.

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