Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Are you? Good. I am very happy for you.

One of the most important Bills to be produced since the election was initiated here in the Seanad. It represented a great opportunity to show how a considered, thoughtful debate in this House could lead to better legislation, in this case to tackle one of the biggest problems facing our people. The Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill is in limbo as we speak. After hours of debate here and a long debate in the Dáil, the end of this great democratic process seems to be playing out between the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, and Deputy Barry Cowen. It is a mess. We do not even know this morning if it will be resuming at all. This shows that even when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in cahoots together, they still cannot get it right. The legislation was cobbled together far too fast. This was clear from the number of Government amendments correcting technical errors.The only conclusion I can reach is that the Government was not serious about fixing the rental crisis until recently and now it is fumbling to get it over the line by Christmas. Homelessness and being without a home have a devastating effect on individuals and families. To lose a home for any reason is terrible but to lose it through theft is an outrage. Many people have lost a home through no fault of their own. They were victims of greed. They were told they were not entitled to return to a tracker mortgage and were kept on higher rates. As many as 9,000 may have been charged higher rates than they should have been, with the full knowledge of the banks. In the case of AIB, 2,600 customers were involved; in the case of KBC, it was approximately 1,000 customers; in the case of Ulster Bank, it was approximately 2,000; in the case of Bank of Ireland, it was approximately 1,800; and in the case of Permanent TSB, it was approximately 1,372. In response to a question from my colleague, Deputy Doherty, about the number of people who lost their homes as a result of that robbery, the Department of Finance conveyed the following information, that is, that 22 people lost their homes due to Permanent TSB lying to them and that 14 people lost homes due to AIB stealing their money. Those are strong words - "robbery" and "lying" but they are appropriate. We should have a debate in the new year on the behaviour of banks towards their customers and how that feeds into homelessness. We must maintain pressure and help the victims, which is what they are. We must also ensure that such robbery never happens again.