Call for action to relieve indebted homeowners

THE REPUBLIC’S largest housing charity, Respond Housing Association, has called for Government action to implement measures to assist homeowners in debt.

The association, which yesterday welcomed the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs into the high levels of debt in Ireland, said “immediate action” to assist homeowners was necessary.

According to spokeswoman Aoife Walsh, the past decade saw annual increases in personal debt as high as 30 per cent, as borrowing and purchasing on credit reached unsustainable levels.

By 2007, personal debt was equivalent to 175 per cent of personal income, and Ireland had become the third most-indebted country in the OECD after the Netherlands and Spain, she claimed. Commenting on the Oireachtas report, she said it was a relief to see that personal indebtedness was “finally being recognised as the massive problem it is”.

“However, it is important that there is no delay in implementing some of the key recommendations . . . including an overhaul of the mortgage interest supplement, the banning of penalty interest on arrears and the acknowledgement that where reckless lending occurred, financial institutions and mortgage brokers should be apportioned some debt responsibility,” she added.

“One of the key recommendations in the report relates to the Financial Regulator’s code of conduct being established as a statutory instrument in its own right. This would mean consumers could take legal action against financial institutions in breach of the code and would force lenders to obey its terms,” Ms Walsh said.

While the report recommended extending the moratorium on house repossessions to 24 months, the Financial Regulator ordered it be extended to 12 months.