Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am angry, not with the Minister of State, Deputy Humphreys, but the Minister for Justice and Equality. The idea that the excuse for county registrars handing out repossession orders and kicking people out of their homes is that there are too many cases and if we got judges involved, the system would not be able to cope. That is effectively what the Minister of State has said - the system could not cope if we got judges to hear all these repossession cases. It is an extraordinary admission by the Government. It is making me angry and I am sure it is making people angry across the country. Some 8,164 civil bills for an order of possession were lodged in court. If all these cases were to be heard by a judge it would have significant resource implications. The Government itself is saying that. It cannot handle the number of repossession cases, the number of families being kicked out of their homes, so it is asking civil servants - registrars, who are not judges - to do this instead. It is wrong.

The vast majority of people on the repossession list are unrepresented. They do not know about entering an appearance. They do not know what it means. They do not know what delivering a defence means. I know of one person who entered an appearance and thought he had to appear in court the day after he got the summons. It is a document, but how are people meant to know that? To them it is gobbledygook. We need judges hearing these cases and showing sensitivity, and we need the Government to admit there is a huge crisis. Above all, we need to keep people in their family homes.

The response by the Minister of State to the matter I have raised is extraordinary. I he goes back to the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and points this out to her. I cannot believe that any politician could stand over what was set out in the script he read.