Burton accused of giving those facing eviction ‘tea and sympathy’

Tánaiste Joan Burton was accused of giving only "tea and sympathy" rather than solutions to families facing eviction.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald made the claim following The Irish Times report that last year 7,100 families had court proceedings lodged against them.

Some 4,500 eviction proceedings were lodged by the banks with the courts in the past nine months.

There have been 1,088 evictions in the first nine months of this year compared to 644 in 2014 and 240 in 2013, when legislation changed facilitating more home repossession cases.

Ms McDonald said the Minister was simply giving “tea and sympathy” but not sustainable solutions.

She asked Ms Burton: “Aside from the tea and sympathy when are you going to put the reins on the banks. When are you going to intervene and make sure that these families have some form of recovery and certainty?”

But the Tánaiste told the Dáil that only one in five borrowers turned up in court.

She said the number of cases lodged in court had fallen by 30 per cent.

She pleaded with borrowers to go to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) or to their lender, “and seek to arrive at an agreement on the debt so they can stay in their own home”.

Ms Burton told Ms McDonald: “If you’re interested in an actual solution the worst thing that can happen is that people deny that there is a problem.”

She said the Mabs had initiated a mentor system so that anyone who goes to court can have actual help and assistance in court.

“Could we move that process back without having to go to court at all? Yes if we could get people to engage with the lender and borrower to sit down together and work it out.”

But Ms McDonald said she hoped the Tánaiste was not trying to shift the blame to it being the non-engagement of families that was causing the problem.

The banks “regard voluntary surrender or eviction as sustainable solutions” to mortgage distress”, she added.

Ms Burton said the Government was acutely conscious of the impact of debt on families across the State and was determined to see it was resolved.

“Our priority is and remains people remaining in their homes whenever this is possible.”

She pointed out that about 90 to 100 of the cases before the courts are actually struck out or refused every month.

Studies showed that if people engaged with their lenders and the case ended up in court “the courts are routinely granting significant periods of adjournment to give the parties more time to reach agreement”.

Ms Burton added: “Only in a situation of absolutely last resort where it is not possible to reach agreement or has been reported in the articles, a lot of people do not appear in court at all.

“There are still a lot of people who are not engaging at all and that really is a point of difficulty.”

Deals were being made “that are allowing people to hold their family home and which will ease the burden of debt”.