“For the second year in a row this Government has introduced a Budget that is deeply regressive, both socially and economically … Socially it hits people on low incomes, including the working poor, more than it hits the better off.
That is the result of the Government, the Labour Party in particular, reneging on the commitments given in the programme for Government and during the 2011 general election. One of the most blatant examples is the cut in child benefit. During the 2011 general election the Labour Party took out Tesco-like advertisements and at every door its candidates told voters that Fine Gael wanted to cut child benefit.”
Minister Howlin Refuses to Tax the 10,000 on 595,000 Per annum
Deputy Seamus Healy: The Minister has been inviting us to consider outcomes. Maybe we should examine some of the outcomes of the social and economic policy of this Government. The gap between rich and poor in Ireland is now four times the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, average. Incomes in the average Irish household have fallen by 50% and low income households lost a greater proportion of their income than the better off. The number of those in poverty has risen and the level of the poverty has deepened.
That is the view expressed recently by the OECD which confirmed the ESRI’s finding that budget 2014 had had the greatest impact on low income groups, the incomes of which had declined by 2%, and supported the claim by Social Justice Ireland that budget 2013 had been unjust and regressive. Social Justice Ireland stated:
For the second year in a row this Government has introduced a Budget that is deeply regressive, both socially and economically … Socially it hits people on low incomes, including the working poor, more than it hits the better off.
That is the result of the Government, the Labour Party in particular, reneging on the commitments given in the programme for Government and during the 2011 general election. One of the most blatant examples is the cut in child benefit. During the 2011 general election the Labour Party took out Tesco-like advertisements and at every door its candidates told voters that Fine Gael wanted to cut child benefit.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: Is there a question or is this a speech?
Deputy Seamus Healy: Labour Party candidates asked the public to vote for them in order to stop child benefit cuts. The public put its trust in the Labour Party and what happened? The party has supported cuts in child benefit every year since it entered government.
An Ceann Comhairle: I ask the Deputy to, please, put his question.
Deputy Seamus Healy: My question for the Minister—–
Deputy Brendan Howlin: The Deputy has a question.
Deputy Seamus Healy: My question for the Minister, if he will listen, is whether he will reverse the social welfare cuts, including, in particular, the cuts in child benefit, heating, fuel and telephone allowances for elderly people and the carer’s allowance. Is the Labour Party not ashamed, in this the centenary year of the 1913 Lockout and the party’s foundation—–
An Ceann Comhairle: I am sorry, but the Deputy is over time.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: He is well over time.
Deputy Seamus Healy: —– that it is introducing budgets that hit the low-paid rather than the super rich and the very wealthy?
Deputy Brendan Howlin: I have listened to the usual political drivel from the Deputy opposite.
Deputy Seamus Healy: It is true.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: It may have escaped the Deputy – perhaps his salary and other supports are too healthy – that we have just gone through the worst economic crisis in the history of the State. The Government has managed to pick up the broken pieces of a shattered economy and returned it to growth. The critical criteria people will consider are fundamental issues such as employment. How many people have jobs? When we entered government, the unemployment figure was heading towards 500,000. The Deputy is not interested in listening to me. He is fumbling with his papers.
Deputy Kathleen Lynch: He is preparing his second speech.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: The unemployment rate is now falling. It is still too high, at 290,000, but we expect it to fall below 11% this year. Nobody would have believed this a few years ago. We have stabilised our budgets and torn up the prom note, that despicable arrangement made by the previous Administration. We have brought confidence back to the economy. That is the judgment people will make.
The Deputy referred to commitments made by my party. He may not have noticed that it is not in a single party Government. We did not win an overall majority in the last general election. We negotiated a programme for Government with a party which had won significantly more seats than we had. However, if one considers the balance between all of the commitments made by my party and Fine Gael to the people, one will see that the vast bulk have been delivered on. For some Deputies opposite, the very prospect of recovery and renewal is anathema to their political outlook. There are Deputies on the Opposition side who revel in the misfortune of the people and the State because they think they can make political capital from it.
Deputy Seamus Healy: The policy of the Government is to make the poor and the less well-off pay.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: That is a lie.
Deputy Seamus Healy: It made promises with full knowledge of the situation in 2011. The assets of the super rich are back above peak levels in 2006, according to the Central Statistics Office.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: What does that mean?
Deputy Seamus Healy: It means that there are very wealthy people in this country.
An Ceann Comhairle: I am sorry, Deputy, but we are dealing with Leaders’ Questions.
Deputy Seamus Healy: The Government has chosen not to make them pay their fair share.
Deputy Paul Kehoe: The Deputy claims only to represent the poor. How many pensions is he getting?
An Ceann Comhairle: What is Deputy Seamus Healy’s supplementary question?
Deputy Seamus Healy: The Government has chosen not to impose an asset or wealth tax on the super rich. However, it is hitting poor and less well-off families.
An Ceann Comhairle: Will the Deputy, please, put his supplementary question?
Deputy Seamus Healy: There is wealth in this country that is not being taxed by the Government. Will the Minister introduce a tax on wealth and assets to ensure the very wealthy in society, that is, those who earn €595,000 a year and those who have significant assets, pay their fair share of taxes?
Deputy Brendan Howlin: The Deputy is probably aware that we have one of the most progressive income tax regimes in the world. Aside from only one country in the OECD, our progressive tax rate is the best.
Deputy Seamus Healy: Will the Government introduce a wealth or an asset tax?
An Ceann Comhairle: Please allow the Minister to reply.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: Deputy Seamus Healy does not want to hear the reply.
Deputy Seamus Healy: I just want the Minister to answer the question.
An Ceann Comhairle: Everybody in the House wants to hear the reply. The Deputy has had his say.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: He had his say, but I am afraid that he just reads his script and is not interested in the reply. We have the second most progressive income tax regime, with a high marginal rate of tax, that we have defended because the crisis in the country requires everyone to make an appropriate contribution.
Deputy Seamus Healy: I am asking about a wealth or an asset tax.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: When we introduce asset taxes, for example, a local property tax which is regarded as the norm among social democratic parties, the Deputy opposite opposes them. He is only in favour of fantasy taxes on fantasy people.
Deputy Seamus Healy: A Fine Gael Minister did it in the past.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: If we were to impose a tax on those earning in excess of €590,000, as the Deputy suggests, how many people would it cover and how much would accrue to the State?
Deputy Seamus Healy: There are 10,000 such individuals.
An Ceann Comhairle: I guarantee the Deputy silence when he is asking a question. Will he, please, respect the respondent?
Deputy Seamus Healy: I would like an answer.
An Ceann Comhairle: Please stay quiet.
Deputy Brendan Howlin: Deputy Seamus Healy is not interested in the answer. He is only interested in making a stump speech. His greatest regret is that the Government’s economic policies are driving recovery and job creation and bringing investment into the State.
Department of Finance
IBRC Mortgage Loan Book
Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
To ask the Minister for Finance the fraction of the book value that was paid recently by Lone Star and Oakland Capital for the non-performing loans which had been originally drawn down from Irish Nationwide Building Society; the status of the assurance by Lone Star and Oakland Capital that they will comply with Central Bank of Ireland guidelines in dealing with mortgage debt; the entity this assurance has been given; if it is a written assurance; if the assurance is legally binding on Lone Star and Oakland Capital; if he will urgently bring forward legislation to protect these mortgage holders from arbitrary mortgage increases and repossessions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16577/14]
Michael Noonan (Minister, Department of Finance; Limerick City, Fine Gael)
I have been informed by the Special Liquidators that they will not be providing information relating to amounts paid for portfolios by third parties as this is commercially sensitive information.
As the third parties are not regulated entities they are not required to comply with the Central Bank of Ireland Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA). However he two purchasers of the residential mortgage loans, Loan Star and Oaktree, have both voluntarily committed to servicing these books in accordance with the terms of the CCMA.
The Government has always been clear that we would ensure mortgage holders maintained the protection of the CCMA. The Department’s Legislative Programme includes the Sale of Loan Books to Unregulated Third Parties Bill, which will address concerns surrounding the continued applicability of the CCMA after loan books are sold to unregulated entities.
In preparation for this legislation, my officials have been considering how best to ensure that the protections under the CCMA and other Codes continue to apply when a loan book is sold to an unregulated entity. Progress is being made and draft heads of legislation have been sent to the Central Bank for their consideration in advance of more detailed engagement with the Attorney General s office.
It is important to highlight that the contractual terms and conditions of all customer mortgages and other borrowings of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have not changed as a result of the appointment of the Special Liquidators nor will those terms and conditions change as a result of the sale of these obligations to a third party. Purchasers of mortgage loans will be obliged to honour the legal terms of the loan agreements.
All Mortgage Distress Cases Not “Solvable” Despite Assurance by Taoiseach At Leaders Questions
April 6, 2014On Thursday at Leaders Questions in The Dail, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that if people engaged with their lenders all mortgage distress cases were “solvable”. Seamus Healy, who raised the matter, was accused of scaremongering about people losing their homes.
But for the second day in a row, the Taoiseach has been shown to be completely wrong. The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) has to-day revealed that only a handful of mortgages have been restructured through the insolvency procedure over the 6 months since it came into effect. Seamus had pointed out to Enda Kenny several weeks ago that 30,000 householders would be unable to avail of the process because their incomes were below the minimum allowable expenses under the Insolvency Act. Now the advocacy groups for those in mortgage distress-Phoenix, New Beginnings, Flac and Irish Mortgage Holders Association- have confirmed that this is one of two major reasons that the system is failing. Many people have no money to give the bank. The second reason is that the bank has too much power under the act to veto settlements. So even if the householder has some money to pay the bank, most such householders cannot avail of it either. The system is not working.
Yesterday the Taoiseach told Seamus Healy that it was untrue to say that a house was being repossessed every day. Within two hours this was shown to be false at the sitting of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance. The Central Bank website showed that already almost two householders per day were losing their homes. This figure is to rise sharply as the number of repossession processes initiated in the second half of 2013 increased by a factor of six-from 565 to 33,000.
The government parties are trying to cover up the problem until after the local elections
Last Thursday there were 30 repossession cases before the County Registrars Court in Clonmel. There will be further civil sittings in Clonmel and Nenagh over the next 3 weeks.
Seamus Healy TD 087-2802199
Workers & Unemployed Action 