HOWLIN VOW TO END SALE OF MORTGAGES TO VULTURE FUNDS
Howlin pledges ban on loan sell-offs & hits out at ‘flawed’ land agency
BRENDAN Howlin is calling for a blanket ban on the sale of mortgages to vulture funds.
And if the banks don’t comply, new laws should be brought in to stop them selling.
The Labour leader was speaking exclusively to the Irish Mirror at the conclusion of the party’s think-in in Drogheda, Co Louth, yesterday.
He also said the Government’s new Land Development Agency is seriously flawed.
Mr Howlin said the quango’s plans to sell off State land for housing would be like “selling the family jewels.”
Permanent TSB shocked mortgage holders when it announced last month it was flogging more than 10,000 loans to a US vulture fund.
Mr Howlin said he was passionate about protecting ordinary workers and families.
He added: “Many families have knocked on my door and come into my office.
“It is very, very difficult for even a politician to talk to the banks.
“They use any contrivance they can to stop engaging with anybody.
“There’s no logic about some of the performing loans that are being sold off.
SIMPLE
“So I’ve a very simple view on this, Labour will stop the sell-off of these property portfolios to vulture funds, full stop.
“We certainly can do it very readily with the banks that we own and I can think we can do it legislatively with the ones we don’t.”
Mr Howlin claimed the Land Development Agency is not going to solve the housing crisis and is badly designed in favour of developers, not people looking to get their foot on the property ladder.
He added: “Right now, if you look at what is being planned to be done by the Government in relation to public land, they want to basically give the land to developers.
“They are selling off the family jewels and worse than that, if you think about it, what they are saying is that 40% of the land will be available for social and affordable housing, but the corollary of that, the small print of that is that 60% of the land is unaffordable.
“So, we are going to use 60% of our land for unaffordable housing, that’s absurd.”
Mr Howlin also dismissed Housing Minister
Eoghan
Murphy’s idea that an “affordable” home is one that would start at €320,000. He said: “That’s not affordable for anybody on any reasonable salary level.
“And then to compound it, their partners in Government, Fianna Fail, want to give a €60,000 subsidy to developers per unit, it’s as if the last economic crisis hadn’t happened – we solve the crisis by giving public land to developers.
“We need to resist that and we will resist that.”
Labour is proposing spending €16billion on building 80,000 homes to address the property crisis.
Mr Howlin said: “Housing is screaming out for investment now and we’ve introduced our very comprehensive plan and we’d call on the Government to start funding that immediately.”
The former Public Expenditure Minister added: “I have experience in managing the public finances. I know that €16billion is a conservative sum of money to be got.
“I’ve said where it would come from – €5billion from the Irish Strategic Infrastructure Fund.
“We’d take €3billion from the so-called rainy day fund, instead of putting half a billion aside for the next six years, and we would leverage up the balance with monies available from the European Investment Fund, looking for partners on such an important issue like housing.”
Mr Howlin was a Cabinet colleague of President Michael D Higgins and there has been controversy around the cost of the presidential office, which hits more than €7million a year.
The office is immune to freedom of information requests and it refuses to give the Irish Mirror details on what its money is spent on.
Mr Howlin is in favour of complete transparency and believes Mr Higgins will say where the money goes.
He added: “I think Michael D is obviously a candidate that we proposed at the last election and is absolutely a candidate that we support. I think he has done Ireland so proud.
“He has no issue on transparency, he never has on anything he has ever
There is no logic about some of the loans being
sold off
BRENDAN HOWLIN
CO LOUTH YESTERDAY
done in his life. So there’d be no issues with that but there are constitutional issues about the separation of powers etc we have to be aware of.
“The office of the president is fully costed and overseen by the comptroller and auditor general, there is a full report which is presented to Dail committee.
“I don’t want to cross any constitutional restrictions but I honestly believe the President, knowing the man as I do, working with him for 30 years, will not have an ounce of difficulty, with complete transparency in all of these matters. “I know the man, if he is asked personally, whatever the constitutional niceties of it, he will be as transparent in this as he has been in this as he has in every matter in public life.”