Moving on to the motion re mortgage interest relief, I must now deal with a deferred division on the ministerial amendment to the motion. Last Wednesday, 20 September 2023, on the question, "That amendment No. 2 to the motion be made", a division was claimed, and in accordance with Standing Order 80(2), that division must be taken now.
Mortgage Interest Relief: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Pearse Doherty on Wednesday, 20 September 2023:
That Dáil Éireann:
recognises that:
- the cost-of-living crisis is exacting enormous pressure on household finances; and
- mortgage costs are among households’ largest monthly expense, with the unprecedented and sustained rise in interest rates resulting in significant financial pressure for households;
notes that:
- on 20th September the European Central Bank will increase its main lending rate for the tenth time since July 2022, from 0 to 4.5 per cent;
- the Central Bank estimated that, prior to this most recent rate rise, 20 per cent of households would see their annual mortgage repayments increase by more than €3,000, with a further 20 per cent of households seeing their annual mortgage costs increase by more than €5,700;
- according to the Central Statistics Office, mortgage interest costs rose by 51.3 per cent in the 12 months to August;
- at end of June, over 78,000 mortgage accounts were held by vulture funds, with a cohort of these mortgage holders having seen their interest rate rise to as high as 10 per cent;
- a wider cohort of mortgage borrowers, including first-time buyers, face or are likely to face further increased mortgage repayments; and
- the retail banking sector is estimated to record combined operating profits in excess of €5.1 billion, an increase of 97 per cent compared to 2022;
further notes that:
- the Government has refused to introduce temporary and targeted mortgage interest relief to support households struggling with rising mortgage costs;
- Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil supported the sale of mortgage loans to vulture funds without the consent of mortgage-holders; and
- the Government reduced the banking levy in 2022; and
calls on the Government to:
- introduce targeted and temporary mortgage interest relief to support homeowners facing significant increases in their mortgage costs;
- provide mortgage interest relief, applicable to principal private residences, equivalent to 30 per cent of increased interest costs relative to June 2022, with a maximum benefit per household of €1,500 per annum;
- increase the banking levy and use the proceeds of that increase to support households through the introduction of temporary and targeted mortgage interest relief; and
- develop a clear plan to facilitate the reintegration of mortgage holders with loans held by vulture funds into the mainstream mortgage market.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 2:
To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that:
— the European Central Bank (ECB) is independent in the formulation of monetary policy for the Eurozone area;
— the ECB's objective is to maintain price stability and wishes to ensure a timely return of inflation to its two per cent medium-term target; and
— since the middle of 2022, the ECB has increased official interest rates on ten occasions by a total of 4.5 percentage points;
recognises that:
— the determination of retail interest rates is a business matter for individual lenders;
— the level of official interest rates is only one of the factors which will influence the level of retail interest rates;
— the changed interest rate environment will not have a uniform impact on all borrowers and that, depending on particular situations such as the terms of individual contracts, some borrowers will experience a higher increase in interest rates as compared with other borrowers; and
— the Government is aware of the challenges some mortgage holders are facing due to rising interest rates;
further notes that:
— the reintroduction of mortgage interest relief, even on a selective or targeted basis, is likely to involve a significant cost;
— the Budget is the best time to decide how to deploy available resources to support households and various groups; and
— in relation to the bank levy, the contribution by each bank within the scope of the bank levy was the same in 2022 as it had been in the previous year and that the extension of the bank levy is under active consideration and further details will be announced in the context of Budget 2024;
recalls that:
— this Government has made substantial fiscal support available to assist with the cost-of-living challenges amounting thus far to some €12 billion;
— €3 billion in cost-of-living measures were introduced prior to Budget 2023;
— Budget 2023 was a 'cost-of-living' Budget, focussed on addressing inflationary pressures; the Budget package amounted to €6.9 billion, which included over €3 billion in direct measures to address the cost-of-living challenges such as adjustments to income tax bands and increases in social welfare payments;
— this was complemented by a set of one-off cost-of-living supports introduced in the final quarter of last year worth over €4 billion; and
— the Government has continued to act in response to the rising cost-of-living; and in February this year, a further package of supports worth €1.3 billion was introduced;
acknowledges that:
— there is a strong consumer protection framework in place for borrowers who may experience repayment difficulty due to rising interest rates or the cost-of-living more generally;
— all Central Bank regulated mortgage entities, both banks and 'non-banks', are required to follow the provisions of the relevant statutory consumer protection codes, including the Consumer Protection Code and the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears;
— in particular, all cases of mortgage repayment difficulty have to be handled positively and sympathetically by a lender or servicer with the objective at all times of assisting the borrower to meet their mortgage obligations and that regulated entities must work with co-operating borrowers to, if possible, put in place a suitable alternative repayment arrangement; and
— there are a number of public initiatives to assist people who are in mortgage or other debt difficulty such as the Abhaile service which is made up of the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI), the Legal Aid Board, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and the Citizens Information Board (CIB) which provides free financial advice and, where appropriate, also legal advice to people experiencing difficulty with their mortgage;
furthermore notes that:
— the Government and the Central Bank of Ireland, as independent regulator for financial services providers, have engaged with banks and other regulated mortgage entities to ensure that supports are available to mortgage borrowers;
— on 31st August the Minister for Finance, with attendance from the Central Bank of Ireland, the ISI, the CIB and MABS, met the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) and the Chief Executive Officers and senior representatives of the retail banks, retail credit firms and credit servicing firms to indicate that they need to support their customers at this time;
— following this meeting, on 6th September the BPFI outlined a package of further measures to support borrowers who can and wish to switch mortgage or who are experiencing repayment difficulty; and
— this supports the ongoing work of the Central Bank of Ireland to scrutinise regulated firms; and
therefore:
— supports the Central Bank of Ireland in its regulatory work to ensure that borrowers who should be able and who wish to switch are supported to do so and that those facing repayment difficulty are supported with alternative repayment arrangements where appropriate;
— calls on all mortgage lenders to assess and consider switching applications in a prudent and fair manner, regardless of the borrower's current mortgage provider; and
— calls on all regulated mortgage entities to assist their customers experiencing repayment difficulty and to use all alterative repayment arrangement options at their disposal.".
-(Minister for Finance)
Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 70; Níl, 55; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Brophy, Colm.
- Browne, James.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Colm.
- Butler, Mary.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Cahill, Jackie.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Collins, Niall.
- Costello, Patrick.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Creed, Michael.
- Devlin, Cormac.
- Dillon, Alan.
- Donnelly, Stephen.
- Donohoe, Paschal.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Feighan, Frankie.
- Flaherty, Joe.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Harris, Simon.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Higgins, Emer.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Leddin, Brian.
- Lowry, Michael.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Catherine.
- Martin, Micheál.
- Matthews, Steven.
- McAuliffe, Paul.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McHugh, Joe.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Noonan, Malcolm.
- O'Brien, Joe.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connor, James.
- O'Donnell, Kieran.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Gorman, Roderic.
- O'Sullivan, Christopher.
- O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
- Ó Cathasaigh, Marc.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Phelan, John Paul.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Richmond, Neale.
- Ring, Michael.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Smyth, Ossian.
- Stanton, David.
- Troy, Robert.
- Varadkar, Leo.
Níl
- Andrews, Chris.
- Bacik, Ivana.
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Browne, Martin.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Carthy, Matt.
- Collins, Joan.
- Collins, Michael.
- Conway-Walsh, Rose.
- Cronin, Réada.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Pa.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Donnelly, Paul.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Gannon, Gary.
- Guirke, Johnny.
- Healy-Rae, Danny.
- Healy-Rae, Michael.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kenny, Gino.
- Kenny, Martin.
- Kerrane, Claire.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Mythen, Johnny.
- Nash, Ged.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Nolan, Carol.
- O'Callaghan, Cian.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Rourke, Darren.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
- Ó Ríordáin, Aodhán.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Ryan, Patricia.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Wynne, Violet-Anne.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Hildegarde Naughton and Cormac Devlin; Níl, Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Denise Mitchell.
Amendment declared carried.
Question put: "That the motion, as amended, be agreed to."
The Dáil divided: Tá, 69; Níl, 55; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Brophy, Colm.
- Browne, James.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Colm.
- Butler, Mary.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Cahill, Jackie.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Collins, Niall.
- Costello, Patrick.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Creed, Michael.
- Devlin, Cormac.
- Dillon, Alan.
- Donnelly, Stephen.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Feighan, Frankie.
- Flaherty, Joe.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Harris, Simon.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Higgins, Emer.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Leddin, Brian.
- Lowry, Michael.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Catherine.
- Martin, Micheál.
- Matthews, Steven.
- McAuliffe, Paul.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McHugh, Joe.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Noonan, Malcolm.
- O'Brien, Joe.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connor, James.
- O'Donnell, Kieran.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Gorman, Roderic.
- O'Sullivan, Christopher.
- O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
- Ó Cathasaigh, Marc.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Phelan, John Paul.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Richmond, Neale.
- Ring, Michael.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Smyth, Ossian.
- Stanton, David.
- Troy, Robert.
- Varadkar, Leo.
Níl
- Andrews, Chris.
- Bacik, Ivana.
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Browne, Martin.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Carthy, Matt.
- Collins, Joan.
- Collins, Michael.
- Conway-Walsh, Rose.
- Cronin, Réada.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Pa.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Donnelly, Paul.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Gannon, Gary.
- Guirke, Johnny.
- Healy-Rae, Danny.
- Healy-Rae, Michael.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kenny, Gino.
- Kenny, Martin.
- Kerrane, Claire.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Mythen, Johnny.
- Nash, Ged.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Nolan, Carol.
- O'Callaghan, Cian.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Rourke, Darren.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
- Ó Ríordáin, Aodhán.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Ryan, Patricia.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Wynne, Violet-Anne.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Hildegarde Naughton and Cormac Devlin; Níl, Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Denise Mitchell.
Question declared carried.