Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments made by my colleague, Senator Landy, about the cost of financial transactions. In my opinion, access to financial services is a basic human right. When I reflect on the counter charges being imposed by some of the banks, I wonder whether we would be in the position we are in today if some of them had known their customers better going back a couple of years. I think the new regime of charges is particularly ageist, given that older people are more likely to use counter services than younger people, who are more likely to be online. I understand that one bank intends to increase its counter charges by 50%. I ask the Leader to follow up on that.

It is reported in today's newspapers that the Governor of the Central Bank is considering reducing the deposit requirement for first-time home buyers from 20% to 15%. While that would represent a marginally better position, I have to be honest and say it would not answer many of the criticisms that have been made about this move. Overall, the use of loan-to-value ratios in this way is a very blunt instrument that does not take into account the affordability of the mortgage for the individual concerned. I accept that the Central Bank is independent and that this is being done in the interests of having a robust lending framework.

Governor Honohan has made it abundantly clear that he intends to look into his own heart where this is concerned, as opposed to the views of the Department of Finance. While I accept the independence of the Central Bank, this is a wider societal issue and is a matter for the Government. In this country we have had an historic rate of home ownership. I emphasise that all sectors of society have been able to access home ownership, from the lowest to the highest in the land, thanks to measures such as local authority mortgages and tenant purchase schemes, for example. If we step away from the wide scale of home ownership, we will do so at our peril. I ask the Leader to have a wider debate on the issue of home ownership in Ireland and what measures the Government should consider, given that the Central Bank will go ahead with these proposals, to ensure that we have access to home ownership in Ireland. It has been proven historically that one of the reasons older people in Ireland today do not experience the rate of poverty that their incomes would lead one to expect, is because they own their own homes. In my opinion, this is a very critical issue for society as a whole.