I tried to table a parliamentary question to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government. The question was:
To ask the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the reason a person in Dublin 12 is paying her mortgage administered by his Department at 12.5 per cent; and the measures, if any, he is proposing in view of the commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium issued in November 1999 to target support to home owners with high fixed interest rate local authority loans; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
That question was ruled out of order because the Minister, apparently, has no responsibility to the Dáil in relation to the targeted support to home owners with high fixed interest rate local authority loans. The other part of the question was allowed.
It is becoming extremely difficult to get basic information here that we could get under the Freedom of Information Act. My question is very simple. Why is my elderly, widowed constituent, who lives alone, paying three times the current mortgage rate? She is paying 12.5 per cent on a mortgage she took out in 1984 with the local authority, which is now a Housing Finance Agency loan. Why is this widow paying 12.5 per cent when interest rates are 4 per cent?
The banks were charging a little more than that until competition entered the market. I know the Government will say this was a long-term loan taken out many years ago when the current low interest rates could not have been forecast. However, that is not exactly true. The Maastricht Treaty criteria for the single currency set out to bring about long-term low interest rates, which are being achieved at present. The Government has rescheduled its own debt to take advantage of that, thereby decreasing the debt to GNP ratio.
Why is it that when there are low interest rates, which could have been forecast, and the national debt can be rescheduled, my widowed constituent is still paying 12.5 per cent, which is three times the current average mortgage interest rate? How much longer will the State persecute this widow in Dublin 12, who lives alone and is struggling to get by on her widow's pension, and people like her, by requiring them to pay the exorbitant rate of 12.5 per cent when the State has rescheduled its own debts and has brought its own finances under control? This woman should not be asked to carry this burden one day longer. If we are able to reschedule our debts internationally to the benefit of the State, surely, when interest rates have been cut by two thirds, my widowed constituent, and people like her, should be able to benefit by having their interest rates rescheduled at the same time.
I hope the Minister will not say this is under review. I want a decision, to be given the date when it will happen and a commitment. That is the least that can be done in this case.
