Joan vows a fresh approach to arrears
JOAN Burton has confirmed that an examinership regime for homes is likely to feature in a fresh mortgages initiative to be launched by Government.
The controversial veto that banks currently hold on insolvency deals is frustrating some families in serious mortgage arrears who want a solution with their lenders.
The examinership scheme will introduce an independent arbitrator that could overrule a bank’s decision and, in doing so, remove the bank’s powerful veto.
The Tánaiste told reporters yesterday that it is her desire that such a system be introduced as part of the Government’s new plan to tackle the mortgage arrears crisis.
‘A key issue is that there’s a significant veto exercised by the banks over deals that otherwise appear reasonable to personal insolvency practitioners,’ said the Labour leader.
‘The second issue is in relation to having a proposal similar to examinership.
‘In other words, if a company or a business is in danger of going to the wall or being liquidated, what happens is there are two alternatives: one is the examinership, whereby the viability of the business is gone into intensively and if there’s an opportunity to turn the business around then that’s exercised through the examinership process. And liquidation is a last resort.
‘On a personal level, in relation to personal insolvency, a personal examinership in my view would be desirable, it would also have the benefit of being overseen by the courts.
‘I think that would offer a significant mechanism to ensure that the banks act in the public good as well as in their own private interest.
‘Certainly the banks seem to be rather forgetful of what the Irish taxpayer did in bailing them out and they have been well-capitalised with resources that the taxpayer has provided and we want to see solutions,’ she said.
‘It’s a way of having an oversight through the courts.’