Government washes its hands of families at risk of home repossession

The recently published mortgage repossession figures are another indication that the Government is ignoring the escalating home repossession crisis, according to Fianna Fáil TD Sean Fleming.

Deputy Fleming explained, “New figures show that so far in 2015 there have been a shocking 4,440 repossession orders lodged in the courts. The banks have ramped up their repossession efforts over the last year, with 188 homes repossessed in July to September alone. This is a 92% increase on the same period in 2013.

“The Government introduced the Mortgage-to-Rent scheme with the view to keeping people in their homes. However the scheme has been a complete failure with only 2.9% of the 98,137 mortgage holders in arrears actually applying to use the scheme. The success rate of mortgage holders who have applied to the scheme is equally abysmal, with a mere 3% getting through the application process successfully.

“More than 15% of mortgage accounts for family homes are now in arrears, which is more than three times higher than the figure at the end of December 2010. The most recent statistics from the Central Bank show that a staggering 117,000 principal dwelling house mortgage accounts are in arrears; almost 60,000 of these are in arrears of a year or more. The country is potentially facing 25,000 home repossessions next year alone.

“Homeless figures for families have risen five fold since January alone. Three families are becoming homeless every single day and 1,570 children are currently sleeping in emergency accommodation. This crisis is going to get much worse unless the Government shakes itself out of its slumber and develops coherent policies for keeping families in their homes.

“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 taking place in 2015.”