Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for stepping in to take this Commencement matter. I raise the mortgage interest rate increases which have been ongoing for the best part of a year. There have been several hikes in mortgage interest rates since last year. Last week AIB announced it was increasing its fixed rate by up to 0.7% and its standard variable rate by up to 0.65%. First-time buyers are already struggling to meet the criteria for mortgage approval and these hikes will make it impossible for many of them to do so. During a cost-of-living crisis mortgage holders on variable interest rates or those whose mortgages are with vulture funds are finding their mortgage repayments soaring to the point where they are paying well beyond their means. Repayments are rising by thousands of euro a year. Some are paying interest rates of up to 8%. All this is while banks profit by paying little or no interest on deposits. The Money Advice & Budgeting Service has said “the interest rate hikes serve as a particularly alarming trend during a cost-of-living crisis and are having disastrous effects” while the Free Legal Advice Centre, FLAC, has warned that spikes in the cost of living and interest rates threaten an increase in new arrears cases. I know, from people contacting me, that those new arrears cases are significantly increasing at the moment.

I will give just one example of what is happening to an average mortgage, from a Limerick perspective. Since last September, it has increased for one particular couple by €360 a month. The average wage in the country this year is €44,000, which breaks down to a gross monthly salary of €3,683. Right now, that family is paying €4,300 more than this time last year, so it has wiped out a month’s salary and a good chunk of the following month’s salary as well, and it is going to get worse because we are expecting further interest-rate rises which will be passed on again to hard-pressed mortgage holders. You could easily have a situation where by the end of this year, people are losing up to two months of their annual salary with the increased charges they have to pay on their mortgages.

Sinn Féin thinks this is entirely unacceptable. My party colleagues in the Dáil proposed a temporary and targeted mortgage interest relief back in May. The proposal sought to absorb 30% of the increased interest costs facing mortgage borrowers with a maximum relief of €1,500, operating for eight months from May this year to the end of 2023. It was a viable and sensible approach to help people caught up in this situation but the Government parties, including the Green Party, voted it down even though the State is expected to run a surplus in excess of €10 billion this year.

I was very disappointed to see Limerick representatives, Deputies Leddin and O’Donnell, vote against the Sinn Féin proposal to help mortgage holders while Deputy Willie O’Dea was not present for the vote. People all over Limerick are contacting their local representatives looking for help and some answers. Why has the Government taken the decision to leave these struggling mortgage holders waiting until October before it decides if it will come up with some kind of relief?They are struggling now. They have been struggling for months. What answers does the Minister of State have for the woman I mentioned today, and the thousands like her?