Those in serious mortgage arrears need protection for the family home, according to the Director of Social Justice Ireland.
Commenting on proposals, leaked by RTÉ earlier this week, that the
government is considering allowing those facing repossessions, (having
lost ownership of their homes), to rent their own homes, Fr Séan Healy
said there needs to be protection of the family home, but there had to
be “serious parameters,” like a monetary ceiling, beyond which no
support would be given.
“If people spent €1.5 million on a home during the Tiger years, there would be no responsibility to protect that,” he told ciNews.
He said that Social Justice Ireland would also not support the
writing off of mortgages that were entered into as property
investments. “They did it as an investment, they lost,” he said.
The only exception however to the “protecting the family home only
rule” was in the case of a couple who married where both had mortgages
already.
Fr Healy, formerly of the Social Justice Department of CORI
(Conference of Religious of Ireland), said relief should be given on a
case-by-case basis.
He agreed with Minister Michael Noonan’s statement
(reiterated after by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore) that there is a distinction
to be drawn between “those who can’t pay, and those who won’t pay,” but
currently, he said, there are “a lot of unthought through proposals” in
the air.
He was not willing to speculate on what the monetary ceiling might be
where mortgage relief would be allowed. "We would need to look at the
house prices from 2008 back to 2004 and then work out the ceiling
figure."
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said introducing
an extensive debt forgiveness scheme for those who are in mortgage
arrears was simply not a realistic option.
Speaking to an Oireachtas
committee, he said the issue was complex and there was
no magic bullet or one-size-fits-all solution.
For the moment, resolutions had to be found on a case-by-case basis
through people in arrears openly engaging with the lending agencies.
Currently more than 55,000 mortgages are in arrears of more than 90
days.
A ten-member group of civil servants from different departments and
bank representatives is currently meeting to come up with
recommendations on mortgage debt.
The group is due to report at the end
of this month.
According to RTÉ, the committee is considering using the social
housing machinery of the State to help.
This could allow people stay in
their homes after the houses or apartments were repossessed.
As they
would no longer own the properties, they then would rent them, possibly
from the State.
In its election document, Fine Gael proposed a universal mortgage
indemnity insurance to protect against negative equity.
Labour proposed
a two-year moratorium on repossessions.