David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not need the full five minutes as I have only a few things to say, having spoken passionately on this matter previously. I listened to the speeches this afternoon and got the feeling there is a lack of the urgency and passion that one would expect in confronting a crisis, except for a few speeches. That does not reflect the sense of catastrophe facing us. This Government is having great difficulty in dealing with approximately 7,000 homeless people but what will happen when the number reaches 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000, which is quite possible as a result of the operations of the European Central Bank leaning on the likes of AIB, pushing them to offload distressed mortgages? As something from a southern unionist and royalist background, I am astonished speakers from the two main parties that claim derivation from the republican movement and anti-Britishness, etc., are prepared, in an Irish republic of the 21st century, to look with equanimity at people being evicted to the side of the road from homes. To contemplate any Irish person being evicted is an obscenity.

On 31 March this year there was a total of €8.8 billion in outstanding balances on mortgages in arrears for more than a year for private homes. That covered 41,000 accounts in total but in reality it is a lot more. It is well over those approximately 40,000 accounts. For this reason I was approached by a group of people to introduce a Bill in the last session, the National Housing Co-operative Bill 2017; it is still on the Order Paper. Unfortunately, there is a kind of bureaucratic resistance to thinking outside the box. This Bill proposed a new agency, a national housing co-operative, which would move in when the likes of AIB unloaded an enormous number of mortgages, creating a possible avalanche of homelessness. The co-operative would take over the distressed mortgages at the current level of value before renting them back or remortgaging them to the original owners so they could stay in those houses.In my opinion, that is a really good and imaginative response. The Bill I introduced in the Seanad is at present being refined and honed to make it a more accurate and appropriate vehicle. Deputy John McGuinness in the other House is taking a very active interest in this Bill and there has been all-party support for this measure. A group has been in America to discuss with trust funds the possibility of securing the capital required and there is quite a possibility of a 20 year bond, secured against the properties. We believe we would have the backing of major international financial institutions to do so. This is because long-term 20 year loans are at an uniquely low cost level and could be accessed.

This situation is urgent and it needs to be addressed as a crisis. We need to think imaginatively. As I said, it is an obscenity in an Irish Republic in the 21st century that we should contemplate citizens being evicted from their homes.