Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my support of Senator Grace O'Sullivan's comments and concerns about Hinkley power plant. It is very important that submissions are made. Perhaps we should consider making a submission from this House on such a serious situation. We can discuss that in an informal way, but it is very important that the voices of Irish citizens are heard. I doubt that there would be much deviation from any of the submissions that would be made.

Today I wish to speak about the sale of the recent sale of mortgages to vulture funds.I have spoken about this many times, as I am a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. These are the very same vulture funds which have continuously refused to appear before the committee saying that they are adhering to the code of conduct of the Central Bank of Ireland. The most recent round of sales by Permanent TSB is shocking in its scale of €4 billion. There has been a lot of reaction in the Seanad and across the political spectrum but very little firm political commitment to solving the problem. Let me stress that legislation is needed as well as political pressure. In terms of political pressure, the Minister for Finance, as the majority shareholder, can tell State-owned banks not to permit further sales to vulture funds. Practical legislation is also required and in 2015, the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government failed to put in place the proper regulation of the vulture funds. Its legislation centred only the middle man or the credit servicing firm. That has given rise to all kinds of issues where the owner of the credit gets off the hook, but my Sinn Féin colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, attempted to make sure that the owners of the vulture funds were fully regulated but our amendment was voted down on Committee Stage in May 2015 by both the Fine Gael and the Labour Party, with the members of the Fianna Fáil Party not turning up for the vote. A Programme for a Partnership Government states: "We will provide greater protection for mortgage holders and tenants and SMEs whose loans have been transferred to non-regulated entities (‘vulture funds’). (Year 1 Action)." This commitment is classed as a "Year 1 action", but I do not see much evidence of any major progress so far since the programme was signed up for. The same promise is contained in the confidence and supply agreement, which Fianna Fáil has signed up to.

Will the Minister for Finance come to the Chamber because I wish to ask him what the Government plans are to deal with the vulture funds in the long term? The issue is that long-term products are being sold to short-term entities which want to make a quick buck, and many millions of bucks. As a result, the vultures are not interested in sustainable solutions but in cashing in, one way or another. Until this is done, many homes, businesses and farms will be under threat of maverick action by these vulture funds. If there is a write down to be done, it needs to be with the homeowner. Giving a write down to vulture funds is absolutely nonsensical and it is an exploitation of Irish citizens.