David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Here we go again with Government Ministers and Senators passing the buck to the Central Bank and others. Of course they have a role and they have expressed clear concerns about the breach of fair process, which was the very essence of the CCMA framework in the first place. Today The Irish Timesreported: "Lenders also continued to seek additional ad-hoc payments from borrowers on top of agreed revised repayments without formally assessing their ability to make these additional payments."

A number of weeks ago I was outside the courthouse in Waterford when more than 30 families were before the courts over potential repossessions. Again the banks were not playing ball with those families. These are people who have tried their best. They have gone through MABS and gone through the process. They are paying what they can yet the banks are going for repossession. There is no write down, no proper restructuring and none of the options the Government claims are available, such as split-mortgages and mortgage to rent. Those options are not available to people because the banks are simply not using them. Until the Government faces up to that reality and faces down the banks, into which we invested huge amounts of money, and properly represents those people who are in mortgage arrears, we will continue to have these problems.

My message to Government Senators and Ministers is for them to offer less tea and sympathy and show more action. They should put in place the policies for which they are paid to ensure that those in mortgage arrears get at least a fair crack of the whip and are properly represented because the Government has failed them up to now.