No blanket write-down of home loans, says Taoiseach

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny repeated there would be no “automatic blanket write-down” of distressed mortgages.

He said Government wanted alternatives to having people losing their homes. “That is a fundamental principle which we want to hold on to,” he added.

“We must distinguish between those who cannot pay and those who will not pay.” Mr Kenny said the Keane report on the issue would be published today and debated by the Dáil next week.

He said he appreciated the anxiety and concern of so many people who were affected by mortgage distress, adding that the Keane report was not the repository of all wisdom.

When the Dáil debate concluded next week, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan would take the strands of what everyone had to say and, in the event that there were new ideas, initiatives or matters not referred to in the report, or not currently in existence, take them into account.

“The Minister will draw all of those together and the Government will respond quickly by making decisions,” he added.

“This is a matter that will not be long-fingered and is an issue we intend to follow through on very quickly.”

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the extensive leaks of the report would be greeted with bitter disappointment by the 95,000 homeowners in mortgage difficulties, some 40,000 of whom were in arrears of more than six months.

“While there may be a few speculators among these, the vast majority are victims of the greed of developers and Irish bankers, facilitated by European bankers and speculators,” he added.

“They gouged from ordinary workers who needed a home those obscene prices and the massive monthly mortgages are now creating a major crisis as workers lose their jobs and experience draconian cuts to their incomes, including budget cuts, causing enormous distress and mental suffering.” Mr Higgins said the report tinkered around the problem, offering guidelines to banks which were strongly encouraged to follow them.

He asked if it was serious that the very institutions central to the profiteering and speculation that caused the crisis were now largely being looked at to resolve it.

The victims, said Mr Higgins, were being thrown to the tender mercies of the banks.

“It is like sending a bunch of marauding foxes that had raided a henhouse back to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to their victims,” he added.

Mr Higgins asked if the Taoiseach could look home-owning taxpayers in the eye and say that the Government would not allow any write-down of what was tied around their necks when three weeks from now he would authorise a €700 million payment to an unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholder, with €3.5 billion to be paid by the end of June.

Mr Higgins said people were being forced out of their homes, with almost 1,000 repossessions in one form or another in the past two years.

A United Left Alliance colleague, he said, had been dealing with a family, a husband, wife and three children, ordered to be on the streets at noon today, on the orders of a subprime mortgage lender. “That is the reality of the distress and suffering that exists,” he added.

Mr Kenny insisted the Government would respond quickly to the situation. The Minister for Finance would present his proposals and they would be acted on immediately. There was also, he said, the question of being able to deal with personal insolvency as a matter of urgency.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter was currently concluding the heads of a Bill which would be discussed by a Cabinet committee with a view to introducing legislation in that area as quickly as possible, Mr Kenny added.