Family homes should not be repossessed – O’Brien

Fianna Fáil’s Dublin spokesperson Senator Darragh O’Brien is calling for financial institutions to find alternative means to deal with the mortgage crisis and says that no family homes should ever be repossessed.

“No family should have to leave their home. In this day and age evictions and repossessions should be a thing of the past,” added the Dublin Fingal candidate who went on to accuse the Government of washing its hands of families at risk of home repossession in Dublin.

He pointed out that in 2015 a shocking 849 repossession orders were lodged in Dublin.

“Nationally there were 4,440 repossession orders lodged in the courts. In the period July to September in 2015 almost 200 homes were repossessed. This is nearly double the number of homes repossessed on the same period in 2013. Meanwhile the Government has sat by without taking any meaningful action to help distressed mortgage holders,” added Senator O’Brien.

“More than 15% of mortgage accounts for family homes in Ireland are now in arrears, which is more than three times higher than the figure at the end of December 2010. The country is potentially facing 25,000 home repossessions in 2016 alone,” he warned.

“The Government introduced the Mortgage-to-Rent scheme with the view to keeping people in their homes. However this scheme has been a total failure. Only 27 people in Dublin were actually successful in getting on to the scheme in 2015 despite 660 people applying for it. The Government has designed the scheme as a bureaucratic nightmare to discourage people from applying.

“In March, Fianna Fáil put forward legislation which would have removed the banks’ veto on restructuring arrangements involving a mortgage on a family home. Unfortunately, the government rejected this solution wholesale and has refused to take action to forestall the wave of repossessions that are likely to place in 2016.”
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