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LAST UPDATE | 31 Jan 2019
THE DÁIL HAS voted in favour of Sinn Féin’s No Consent, No Sale Bill which aims to give mortgage holders the power to block the sale of their loans to vulture funds.
Pearse Doherty’s Central Bank (Transfer of Mortgages) Bill puts into law what already exists at the moment as a voluntary Central Bank code.
The Dáil voted by 80 votes to 45 to pass the Bill – the government opposed the proposed legislation.
That voluntary code states that lenders looking to offload a mortgage must get the borrower’s permission before selling the loan onto a third party.
The deputy recently highlighted the code of practice with Permanent TSB bankers when they appeared before an Oireachtas Committee. He asked if PTSB would adhere to the code in relation to the transfer of over 6,000 of its customers’ mortgages to another financial entity.
The bank bosses told the committee that they would – however they later rolled back on that response.
https://www.facebook.com/sinnfein/videos/1124545744375853?sfns=0
The Central Bank code of practice does indeed state that “a loan secured by the mortgage of residential property may not be transferred without the written consent of the borrower”.
It goes on to say that if a bank is to transfer a mortgage of one of its customers it must provide a statement containing sufficient information to enable the borrower to make an informed decision and give a clear explanation of the implications of a transfer.
“It must also set out how the transfer might affect the borrower. The borrower must be approached on an individual basis and given reasonable time to give or to decline to give his consent,” it adds.
Homeowners get letters in the door
December’s hearing of the Oireachtas Finance Committee also heard evidence that in the majority of cases, homeowners simply receive a letter from their respective bank informing them that their mortgage has already been sold or transferred to a vulture fund, and are given no say as to whether they agree with such a move.
Despite the code of practice being drafted by the Central Bank, the regulator has advised the government to oppose the Sinn Féin Bill.
It has “significant concerns on the terms of the Bill from a consumer protection, prudential supervision and financial stability perspective”, according to a government spokesperson, who added:
The banking industry also believes there would be many adverse outcomes attached to this Bill, including possibly reduced funding availability to banks, higher mortgage costs and a reduction in market attractiveness to potential new and existing participants.
It is argued each of these impacts would increase risks to financial stability and have major negative economic impacts.
The government believes the Bill would have “potential consequences for the mortgage market, financial stability and the economy” stating that they could be “so severe that they cannot be entertained”.
It adds that the likely consequence could be an increase in the number of repossessions by banks, adding that the Bill would also have implications for new mortgages, and “would increase the incentives to strategic default and, by increasing the risk levels of existing mortgages and the costs to the lenders, it would give rise to increased interest rates for those who hold Standard Variable Rate (SVR) mortgages”.
The government said it was opposing the Bill as it would make it almost impossible to facilitate securitisations which are used as a source of bank funding.
Backbenchers ‘squirming in their seats’ during today’s vote
A debate earlier this week heard from a number of politicians who appealed for the government to support the Bill.
Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin raised the personal case of one of his constituents to highlight its importance.
He said Maire and Sean are a married couple in his constituency in Dublin Mid-West.
“They both work, and they have worked their entire adult lives in modest wage jobs,” he told the Dáil.
“They get up early in the morning and they work hard, and they raised their now-adult son exceptionally well. In their entire life they had never missed a mortgage payment until Permanent TSB unreasonably hiked up their interest rates and put them into difficulty.
“What did they do? They did what any responsible mortgage holder would do. They engaged the banks immediately. They sat down with them, went through the mortgage arrears resolution process and came out on the other side of that with a split mortgage.
They have met every single payment under the terms of that agreement since it was reached. Their intention was always to return to full payments and eventually honour the full loan they took out to buy their family home. In November last, they contacted me at the time they were trying to see when they could return to full payments.
“They had received a letter from their lender to say their mortgage was due to be sold. They were not told to who, for how much or the consequences of that. That family have said to me repeatedly that they feel let down by their lender but also by the failure of the Government to protect them. They are now in a position where they simply do not know what will happen. Three months on, they still have not been contacted by their new lender and they are genuinely fearful that they could lose the home for which they worked so hard.”
Ó Broin said he had not heard any argument as to why the minister would not pass this legislation, adding he imagines many government backbenchers would be “squirming in their seats come today’s vote on the Bill.
‘Vulture lovers’
During the same debate, Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice told the Dáil that Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are “vulture lovers”, adding:
Let us be very clear: if a bank sells on a mortgage, a vulture will not offer the borrower a split mortgage. That is the bottom line. Let no one cod themselves. They look for demand of money. Yes, a borrower who has one house and who is willing to get the hell out of it will probably get a write-down if the loan was bigger than the house is worth.
Mattie McGrath also hit out against the government and those in Fine Gael, claiming “the very people the Minister was elected to protect, the families behind these loans, do not feature in Fine Gael land”.
Referencing the PTSB mortgage sale mentioned earlier, he said the State bank (PTSB is 75% owned by the State) sold over 6,000 family home loans to an unknown entity.
“These were loans belonging to families that had been engaging with the bank, some of whom had never missed an agreed payment but again, the government did nothing. It sat there smugly and turned a blind eye. The government continues to sit there while family home loans are being sold of to unaccountable vulture funds, ignoring the suffering of families. Government members ought to be ashamed of themselves. They are not ashamed, but they ought to be.”
Finance minister defends government position
In defending the government’s stance, the Finance Minister said many of mortgage-holders impacted by this issue are in his own constituency.
However, he said mortgage arrears in Ireland have reduced, and also referenced the government’s Abhaile scheme, which aims to help homeowners who find themselves before the court. This week, a report found the scheme was not working as it should.
Mentioning PTSB, he acknowledged that “more could and should have been done for some but after years of effort to try to reduce that level of non-performing loans that is where the bank stood – a multiple of the European average, way ahead of where many other banks in Ireland have stood”.
It has been pointed out that a number of mortgages sold on by PTSB were not ‘non-performing’ yet still found themselves to be sold on with the loan book.
He added that the government’s view that the Bill would likely affect the financial interests of the State, and stated a Money Message would be required – this means that even if the Bill is passed by the majority in the Dáil it would effectively be blocked by government.
Commenting after the government’s defeat today, Doherty said:
Given the amount of banks now seeking to offload their mortgages to vultures it is imperative that this legislation now moves speedily through the remaining legislative stages and I have asked the Finance Committee to facilitate and early meeting to go through the legislative scrutiny.
Despite its opposition to my bill the government must listen to the will of the Dáil and allow this legislation to progress as speedily as possible.
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I hope the automatic weapons are better secured than the TVs!
Aren’t they lucky the boys weren’t there when they broke in!!
Surely by going public and disclosing what was taken the Burglars now about the garda involvement in the premises. I hope the gardai now vacate the premises. To use a phrase used in many a film ” position compromised”.
When my house was broken into recently I was told that there was a good chance if I went to balbriggan or fairy house markets I would find my belongings I suggest they do the same see how that goes for ya….
This premises is probably one of many locations the ERU have. No firearms or confidential documents would have been left there, even in a lock up, if it was not going to be supervised. This is just a typical bandwagon story that sells papers and gives people a chance to give out.
3 tv’s were takin and I would be confident in sayin very little if anything else was!!! BOTTOM LINE, it makes a good headline for the papers….
They robbers might get a surprise when they go to use the remote.
Why don’t they take the gardai off shatters door and put them minding premises like this. Get your priorities right Callinan!
They stolen all the toilet seats too.
Even now, they have nothing to go on.
i will give them a good price for an alarm on the gaff might even do it for cash
I really dont understand why the stores werent on a 24 hour guard like the army stores?
It’s not an armoury, it’s a range & training facility. They don’t keep any kit or documents there so there’s no need for a guard on it.
Sure if the burglars now know its the operational headquarters for the guards they will tell any other criminals they know where it is.point being u might as well appeal for witnesses as the cat is out of the bag anyways.no point in not moving if the criminal fraternity know where it is.
If it was used for admin purposes you would hope that no sensitive information was taken. Tv’s aren’t a big deal but confidential files getting into the wrong hands could have major consequences…I wouldn’t want to be on a witness protection program knowing that this can happen so easily
Confidential files can get into anybody’s hands given that Gardai are apparently using their own laptops as they wish.
you mean in here as well
@brian daly, ‘apparently’ they use their own laptops eh? Care to elaborate?
Witness protection Irish style.
Move back to the UK where you have fammily and come home again for weddings or social occasions.Like Steve Collins does in Limerick.
Witness protection anywhere else.
You and your fammily disapper for good under new passports,IDs ,names and backstopped aliases.
You DO NOT ever ,never go back to your old haunts,habits or make contact with your old way of life or friends or kin. Costs lots of money and resources.
So much for security. That place should have been well secured and monitored. Are they telling us that there was no CCTV? That place should have been like Fort Knox – easy to get into, impossible to get out of. No doubt someone is going to get their butt kicked over this.
Why? Do you know what it was used for? What was in it?
Here in US giggling to myself reading this story. My US friends curious to know what’s it about. Too embarrassing to show them
Why is it embarrassing!? The article said it was a facility used by the specialist unit not its headquarters or operational base. It could be a firing range or self defence training area where the televisions were used for playback instruction or monitoring the process! As said before there were no firearms or sensitive documentation stored there and the location was most likely alarmed only with such low Garda numbers a response mightened have arrived in time to prevent the theft. This break-in is no different to any other break-in where its only the fact that the Gardai use it and don’t want attention drawn to it by giving out its location to the national media seeking assistance that makes it unusual! I doubt junkie burglars read the journal every day with their morning methadone so it’s not like they’d be back!
Not good to hear, but the Garda ERU have a number of secretive lock-ups around the country apparently. No firearms or weapons are stored in them, only at Garda Stations. The place will be forensically examined, so there’s a good chance these eejits will be caught!
If this is an april the 1st joke its in bad taste .Its not funny
And a day late..
If the public don’t know the location of the facility, the only way they can provide information is to have been one of the people who took part in a burglary between Sunday night and yesterday morning, where three flat-screen TVs were taken, somewhere within Ireland.
So in affect are the Gardaí asking the people who took part to hand themselves in?
Theyre not asking for the publics assistance
g why
Ah shur look, harmless auld craic in fairness.
slow news day was it journal.ie
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