David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also refer to Senator Butler's comments on the vulture funds. I no longer call them vulture funds. Vultures do a good job of cleaning up flesh from the corpses of dead animals. The people in Ireland who are being attacked by the vulture funds are alive. These people are living and the vulture funds are picking the flesh off them. I call them vampire funds. Will the Leader explain how these entities got charitable status within a week? When I was chairman of the James Joyce Centre it took us several years; umpteen hoops had to be jumped through and we had to produce certificates of this, that and the other before we gained charitable status. How are these people, who produce no benefit to the society or the economy of Ireland, allowed to get charitable funds? What precisely do they do that is charitable in any legitimate meaning of the word? I have already spoken at length about this matter.

This issue is also affecting people, who have paid their way with their mortgages. Just yesterday I listened to Charlie Weston on the wireless. He is the financial correspondent with Independent News and Media. He has never been behind with one red cent of his mortgage yet he received a letter, which was unsigned, from one of these mortgage funds called Proteus Funding. The letter directed him to go to a Garda station with his passport to identify himself. This is a hell of a cheek. I would like to know the status of this situation and if the Government is going to do anything to remove charitable status from these blackguards, otherwise we will be paying for the evictions, we will be paying for the rehousing of people and these funds companies will not pay any income tax at all on their profits.