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THE GOVERNMENT IS working on a range of measures to help those in mortgage distress during Covid-19 as well as assisting them to avoid the repossession of their home if matters escalate, the Department of Housing has said.
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, however, has warned that an important measure that could be used to tackle repossessions – a non-judicial court for those in mortgage arrears – hasn’t been included in this programme for government.
It comes as Central Bank figures last month showed that there were 64 homes repossessed in the first three months of this year, and fears have been raised that the number of those in mortgage arrears will rise as a result of Covid-19.
A department spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has previously expressed concerns about home owners falling into arrears as a result of Covid-19.
The spokesperson said that, among a number of supports, a commitment was made in the programme for government to continue funding Abhaile – a support service for borrowers in home mortgage arrears – and the Mortgage to Rent scheme.
Sinn Féin’s Ó Broin, however, said a non-judicial court was originally included in Fine Gael’s last programme for government in 2016, not acted upon over the last government and doesn’t make an appearance in the new programme for government.
“While Fine Gael never implemented that, we really need to seriously look at the best mechanism at solving these problems now,” he said.
Repossession figures
The number of homes repossessed in Ireland peaked at a high of 1,693 in 2016 according to figures from the Central Bank. This number referred to what are called “principal dwelling homes”, which are simply homes where the owner or owners live in them.
In 2015, there were 1,535 homes repossessed. Of these 1,299 were repossessed by the banks. Digging into the stats further, just under half of these (603) were repossessed on foot of an order while the rest (696) came from homes being voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.
According to the Central Bank statistics, the proportion of homes voluntarily surrendered or abandoned is usually higher.
In 2018, 628 of the 878 homes were repossessed voluntarily. In 2019, there were 535 homes repossessed in Ireland. Of these, 144 of them were repossessed on foot of an order with the other 391 properties voluntarily surrendered or abandoned.
In the first three months of 2020, there were 64 homes repossessed in Ireland. Statistics aren’t yet available for April, May and June.
Under Central Bank guidelines, the code of conduct for borrowers states that legal proceedings to repossess a home can only be initiated “where it has made every reasonable effort to agree an alternative payment arrangement” or where “the borrower has been classified as not co-operating”.
In answer to a recent parliamentary question, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that “during the legal process, borrowers have opportunities to re-engage with lenders to find a solution” but “in some circumstances loss of ownership may be unavoidable”.
Solutions
The Department of Housing said Minister O’Brien is aware that Minister Donohoe is reviewing the code of conduct to ensure that sufficient supports are in place for mortgage holders with repayment difficulties.
A spokesperson also said that the department was looking at a number of measures to help people in danger of losing their homes, including the mortgage to rent scheme (MTR) and the Abhaile service.
“The MTR scheme is targeted at those households in arrears whose mortgage is unsustainable and who are eligible for social housing support,” the spokesperson said. “Under the scheme an eligible household with an unsustainable mortgage goes from being a homeowner to becoming a social housing tenant remaining in the family home and paying an affordable rent based on their income.
From 2012 to the end of June 2020, 691 families comprising 1,182 adults and 1,163 children have remained in their homes under the scheme.
A renewed commitment to the scheme was included in the programme for government. The MTR scheme had been reviewed in 2017 and the department said amendments had been made to improve its operation.
Ó Broin, however, told TheJournal.ie that MTR had been a “peripheral scheme” under previous governments and would continue to be so unless it underwent serious reform, with many banks refusing to engage in such cases.
He said: “The last programme for government had a commitment to a non-judicial court. The idea for it was to be a fair and balanced process. Now, you’ve to deal directly with the banks and the courts.”
He said the current system puts massive strain on lower-income families engaging with this process.
One reason for low levels of repossession in recent years has been that many of the mortgage holders were in negative equity, according to Ó Broin. But, as the value of properties has risen sharply, a number will have risen into positive equity meaning there’s a greater profit to be made for vulture funds, in particular, who purchase the distressed loans.
“A non-judicial mortgage resolution would be effective in keeping families in their homes,” he said.
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An Absolute..great woman
@In the paper: Certainly a woman of contradictions given that she claims to be a suffragette. If she stood for womans rights to vote then she should not have abstained from taking her seat at Westminster. In December 1918 presumably before the GE took place she writes to her sister Eva Gore-Booth signing herself as a member of the IRA. Then in January (after the election) she signs herself as an MP without having any intention of fulfilling her duties as an MP. We do not know if she also wrote to her children while being locked up. Constance Markievicz abandoned her Protestant faith to become a Republican martyr.
@Chris Kirk:
What a load of shyte. There were and are plenty of Protestant republicans.
@Teresa Ryan: I don’t think Chris knows what the Orange stands for in our Country’s flag.
@Chris Kirk: Her faith had nothing to do with what her political beliefs should be, and she was not the only Protestant to stand, a few names come to mind; Wolftone, Lord Edward FItzgerald, Robert Emmet, Bagenal Harvey, C S Parnell, Thomas Davis, SAM MAGUIRE, President Childers, President Hyde etc.
@In the paper: I pass by her former home on leinster rd rathmines. a house of great history. with not even a plaque to mark it. a shame to such a great woman.
@Tom Purcell: Douglas Hyde was also the founder of the Gaelic League.
@Chris Kirk: I don’t know why people convert to Catholicism but I don’t see that it’s anyone’s business but their own. The world is full of Republics, but it isn’t a religion. Also, she and her husband had one child. Why on earth wouldn’t she have written to her, despite the shortage of paper in prison? If that’s a State matter, I suggest you write to the National Museum to check what family members she wrote to.
Countess Markievicz actually broke down in tears and begged for her life after her execution was ordered citing the fact that she was only a woman. Feminist – some joke.
@Adam Reid: what an absolute tool you are. Would you be willing to die for your beliefs? Or would you beg too?
@Jimmy Roughneen: Would you be willing to kill for your beliefs?, is worth asking too.
@Adam Reid: nonsense.She objected to being reprieved on account of her sex and on being told said to her captors “I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me ” .Sean O’Casey said of her “One thing she had ,physical courage.With that she was clothed as with a garment”.If you have something which contradicts the accepted history perhaps you could please quote your source ?
@Honeybadger197: Another question would be, Are you willing to murder an unarmed policeman doing his job for your beliefs ?
@David Conroy: beliefs or a sense of right to freedom?
@Anthony newey: just checked the O’Casey quote which was from memory.He actually said “physical courage in abundance”.
@Honeybadger197: no I would not. Personnel beliefs are not worth dying for. I could change my beliefs based on new evidence.
@Adam Reid:
British army propaganda without a grain of truth. I suppose an excuse was needed why they bottled out of executing her
@Hardly Normal: Same difference, killing an unarmed policeman did not deter her and his freedom never crossed her mind either. The more I read in to this woman’s history the more I see another side to her. Her title Markievicz cannot be traced (on her husbands side) to Poland or Russia, it just does not add up !
@Adam Reid: You’re a lying pathetic moron.
She got one over the RIC for the way they treated strikers during the 1913 lockouts dublin. nice one.
@Sean Conway: the RIC was a Irish police force made up of Irish men . He was a just police officer doing a days work . Over 500 of them where murder by republicans . Sometimes in front of their own families .
@Tommy Whelan: Most of them were drunken louts.
Constance Markievicz gave up his life to enable us to eradicate suppression, taxation, eviction, criminality… Never forget
@John Walsh: and it didnt work. Look at lreland today.
@John Walsh: And what have you got now? Double taxation, evictions, homelessness, criminality deluxe with drug Lords running riot and planting pipe bombs and shooting each other. I could go on but I’ll let it be. You have suffered enough.
@John Walsh: And when she died, of appendicitis, she gave all her money to the poor. Best Minister for Labour ever.
@John Walsh: Never forget that she also abandoned her children and denyed her faith in the Church of Ireland to become a martyr.
Countess Markievicz was no armchair commentator. Agree with her or not, she was committed to her beliefs and got busy living. She underlined on her Christmas Card a meaningful phrase from Oft in the Stilly Night.
@Aideen Stanley: Exactly, it was a reference to the Thomas Moore song: “When I remember all
The friends, so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one,
Who treads alone…”
FG and FF would have considered her a terrorist if she had led her campaign in the 1970′s. Funny old world.
Not sure she would have approved of the Enniskillen bomb or some of the killing which was sectarian by the IRA….She did believe in democracy and in the 1970′s most nationalists in NI voted for the SDLP who supported the Sunningdale agreement….Opposed by the IRA and the DUP…
@Cal Mooney: She joined FF when it formed.
@John003: Are u saying FF and FG would not have considered her a terrorist. She did take part in an uprising against the state. The IRA also partook in sectarian killings in 1919. So I am not sure what your point is in relation to sectarianism.
@Honeybadger197: she joined it when it was a republican party. Now it’s just a vessel through which brown envelopes buy whatever the elite want passed as law.
@Cal Mooney: Yes true IRA did some sectarian killing in war of independence….Difference is they had a mandate from 1918 election which SF won under DeValera…In 1970′s SDLP won every election and had the mandate….She never trusted DeValera however….
@John003: John .. SF did mot run candidates in 1970, so the SDLP were unopposed for the Nationalist vote. The SDLP also swear allegiance to the Queen. SF will not swear allegiance to the British state. That is why SF have the vast majority of the Nationalist vote today. It was also the same reason SF did so well in the 1918 elections. They too refused to swear allegiance to the crown.
@Honeybadger197: I think she joined every organization in the state as well !
@Cal Mooney: That isn’t exactly true as Sinn Fein were led by Arthur Griffith/Michael Collins at the signing of the Anglo Irish agreement and were not arguing about the crown. They wanted the (Free State) freedom from British government rule. It was Dev who wanted an end to the Crown in Ireland, which kicked off the civil war.
@Chris Kirk: You seem to forget that Michael Collins immediately and covertly started shipping weapons to Republicans in the North after the British handed back control of the South. He understood that the Irish in the North needed to defend themselves. It is not written into too many school books (Again FF/FG/Labour dont want to tell the truth about Collins supporting Guerilla war-fare in the North), but all good history books have it well documented. You and everyone should google the truth about Collins.
Jeez, it’s only February, the Christmas articles are starting early this year.
markievicz spoke about civil rights but didn’t stand by them when elected as an MP. Little wonder modern day Sinn Fein in the north abstain from taking their seats at Westminster, while falsely claiming that they represented the civil rights movement during the troubles. Bernadette Devlin was a civil rights activist and an elected MP who stood by her civil rights beliefs at Westminster, so why didn’t Markievicz do the same.
@Chris Kirk: Chris, that sounds like something a member of the Labour party would say to justify every wrong doing they imposed on the most vulnerable of Irish society. Thankfully the Countess and others didn’t take the approach you advocate, otherwise we would all be singing ‘God save the Queen today at all GAA grounds.
@Cal Mooney: Rubbish you know absolutly nothing about Markievicz, go read up on it for feck sake.
@Chris Kirk: You’re no expert either! She had 1 daughter who was in her late teens when Markievicz was imprisoned. Do you think male soldiers abandoned their families to fight too?
@Chris Kirk:
Because SF were elected on a mandate of Irish independence so they set about gaining that independence.
If by 1918, Irish people wanted home rule they would have voted for the Irish Parliamentary party. The didn’t and flocked to SF.
Maybe she was trying to atone for the appalling treatment that her family had dished out to their impoverished and destitute tennants during the preceding century!
@John Mc Donagh: Do you have any evidence for that statement or are you just trying to say that the Gore-Booths were cruel landlords. Have you ever been to Lissadell House to see where they lived. Do you know anything about her children she abandoned to let her parents look after.
@Chris Kirk: I suggest that you read about the clearance of Balligilligan and yes I really DO know all about the Gore-Booths,treatment of their tenants, they were my ancestors landlords. The memories of their Co Sligo tenants are not very uplifting.
@Chris Kirk: Chris, please stop posting nonsense about her abandoned children. They had one daughter, who was at boarding school in England.
@John Mc Donagh: The rents Sir Henry GB charged were between twelve and fifteen shillings an acre compared to 40 shillings charged by the neighbouring estate. Plus free seaweed, an enormous advantage as it was valuable fertiliser.
@Rob_Kennedy: Yeah, and he cleared the townland of Balligiligan because his wife didn’t like the smell of turf fires —–One of the original Greens I suppose! and your post is just absolute nonsense, he evicted more tenants than any of his contemporaries!!
Sir Henry Gore Booth charged half the rent his fellow estate owners did. Constance didn’t get her charitable instincts off a sore knee. She saw the kindness of her parents to their tenants.
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