Cllr. Jackie Cahill calls on Government to act now in Mortgage Arrears Crisis

Councillor Jackie Cahill has called for urgent action to alleviate an increasing crisis for families across Tipperary. Jackie Cahill, a prospective candidate for the Dail ahead of the upcoming Fianna Fail Tipperary Convention issued a statement on the Mortgage Arrears Crisis.

“There has been serious anger nationally at the Governments’ handling of the water charges but in my opinion this will fade in comparison to the national uproar that will follow if 25,000 families nationally are turned out of their family homes.

Tipperary is the seventh highest county when it comes to repossessions and files for repossession of family homes. 10.5% of all mortgages in County Tipperary are in arrears. Last week, a further 141 dispossessions were on the agenda of Clonmel Circuit Court while nationally, nearly 60,000 Mortgage holders are in arrears of more than 1 year.

Personally, I have visited with families in serious mortgage arrears, and the stress and despair is palpable. It was the taxpayers who bailed out the banks in 2010 and to see some of these same taxpayers and their families being held to ransom by their mortgage provider is a scandal. The Government, in its obsession with the important job of balancing the national finances, is completely failing in its responsibility to heavily indebted families who are facing ongoing battles with their mortgage providers on their own.

Currently, the banks are being allowed to do what they like when dealing with families in serious mortgage arrears. I call on the Government to set up an independent body to handle each of these individual arrears situations and find a way forward that honours the rights of both parties, the mortgage holders and the bank. Such a body will introduce a governance to this whole issue which is sadly lacking at present”