Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber.

One undoubted fallout of the financial crash, which happened not too long ago, is that many of our citizens ended up getting into both mortgage and personal debt and some of them even lost their homes. Thankfully many people have managed to get through a very difficult time and have gone through the debt resolution process. We see also that unemployment figures have gone from 16.1% to the all-time low figure of today. People are in a much better position as to their finances and can afford to service loans.

The problem for some people at this juncture is that they find that they cannot borrow. These are people who have gone through the debt resolution process, settled their debt - they are not just people who went bankrupt - but who now wish to acquire a house, buy a home, as opposed to renting, and have found they cannot get a loan from the high street banks.I know the Government has provided the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme to allow first-time buyers to acquire a home mindful of the market and to encourage more housebuilding and house ownership. However, as the Minister of State is aware, this does not apply to people who are second-time buyers. This might arise where people have lost their homes and have gone into mortgage debt. They may find that their credit ratings are shot or poor and they cannot get loans. I am asking that such people are catered for under the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. I believe this is required to facilitate the increasing number of people who have gone to the mortgage-to-rent scheme. The scheme in its current incarnation has been far more successful than the original scheme, for which there was poor take-up. Basically it is a scheme for people who had owned houses but cannot afford the mortgage. They now rent the property but at some time in future there is the prospect of buying it. These people equally need to be catered for in terms of how they will borrow to buy their houses. This is another cohort of people who need to be catered for.

As part of the solution the Central Bank and other banks should be pressed to make their position clear in respect of lending to people in this situation. The banks should make it clear to people that there is a finite time for the credit record to be blackened. After that the people should have a clear and clean slate. There is much confusion and people are missing out. Many people are frustrated. The scheme should operate in keeping with the philosophy that people did not cause the financial crash. People lost their jobs through no fault of their own and could not service mortgages. Now, they have put themselves on an even keel and need a fresh start. We need to support policies that allow them the fresh start we envisage for all our citizens in the wake of the financial crash.