Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of lending, following what Senator Ó Céidigh said. I was speaking at the economics society in UCC last Monday night where a presentation was made by Mr. Seamus Coffey, who is on the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC.He produced very detailed graphs on the levels of savings and borrowings in Ireland. It is interesting that we now have more savings than borrowings, which is a good. The question arises as to how best to use the savings to benefit those who require money to buy their own homes or apartments. I am not sure we are doing sufficient work in this area, particularly for those on lower incomes who need access to local authority funding.

I had a case recently concerning somebody who applied to Cork City Council in February 2018 for a loan to buy a house in which they had already been living for 17 or 18 years. They are now nearly paying more rent because of their earnings than what they would pay on borrowings. It took until October 2018 before they got a reply about their loan application. That was eight or nine months later. That is not the way to deal with a loan application. I have heard of a number of other cases in which there are considerable delays in the assessment by local authorities of applications by people who are genuinely trying to move on and take the step to look after their own affairs and who are prepared to buy and look after their own property. Our local authorities are not doing enough.

It is about time we had a debate in this House on how we can improve circumstances for those in the middle income group who cannot borrow from the private sector but who should be supported through the local authority system. I ask that we have a debate on this matter to determine whether we can bring about some changes.