Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As Senator Darragh O'Brien knows, I have great sympathy for what he is proposing. I am also aware that the Leader has attempted on a number of occasions to get the Minister, Deputy Noonan, to come to the House. We all accept he is doing his best in this matter. Now that our Presidency of the EU has concluded, it is time the Minister came in here to discuss the matter fully and frankly with the House. I raised the matter yesterday during the debate on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013. As Senator Darragh O'Brien knows, I have enormous difficulties with the current code of conduct on mortgage arrears, which is a charter for banks. On a regular basis I also deal with people who are in this heart-breaking position. The country will never move on from the banking crisis and economic collapse until the matter is resolved fairly to the satisfaction of everyone.

I wish to speak about the buy-to-let mortgages. I am concerned that the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, has stated that very few family homes will be repossessed. His view of a family home is a home that is occupied as a principal private residence. He said that there was a backlog of approximately 30,000 buy-to-let properties waiting to be repossessed by the banks given the level of arrears. They are people's family homes. One in five families live in rented accommodation. It is one in four in city areas and one in three in some areas of the capital. Many of those families are in receipt of rent supplement. In other words, by definition, they are on social welfare payments of some description. Those are family homes. There is no code of conduct about how those homes will be treated. I ask the Leader to bring this to the attention of the Minister for Finance. We stand at the cusp of a very serious difficulty if we start repossessing buy-to-let properties without taking into account what will happen to the people living in those family homes.