Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I raise the issue of home repossessions, which has re-entered public debate recently. For a huge number of families, the issue has never gone away. I have been contacted by constituents who have had their mortgages sold out from under them to vulture funds. One woman in her 70s, who was a founding co-ordinator of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, and a lifelong community worker, has spent 12 years fighting to save her home. Her mortgage was sold without her consent and she has since lived in constant fear of eviction while the financial institutions act with impunity.She did everything right. She worked hard, paid her taxes and helped others to save their own homes. Sadly, her story is not unique. Thousands of people are still caught in the same nightmare. Families are being financially crushed by interest rates of between 6% and 8.5%, even as the European Central Bank's lending rate has fallen to 2.15%.

In a response to a parliamentary question submitted by Aontú, the Minister for Finance dismissed this as a commercial matter between two parties. The response shows a shocking lack of empathy and a complete disconnect from the real cost-of-living crisis and the real lived experiences of our citizens. We must not forget that these vulture funds were invited into the country by members of the Government. The Minister also claimed that vulture funds cannot stand in a better position than the original lender. While they cannot rewrite the loan terms, however, many contracts already give the lender the power to change the interest rate. When a vulture fund takes over, it inherits that power and uses it to drag rates far higher than the banks would ever do. Vulture funds would not exist only for this. The Government needs to intervene in the sale of mortgages without consent to these predatory vulture funds. We need real protections for mortgage holders and families and fair access to switching and refinancing.