Kenny: There is a solution to every distressed mortgage

There is a solution to every distressed mortgage case, but the homeowner has to engage with the lender, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told the Dáil.

Mr Kenny said “there is no point leaving it on the slide because it will not sort itself out”.

The Taoiseach said “a deal has got to be cut in all these cases and that’s 75,000 mortgages have been restructured, 45,000 permanently”.

Mr Kenny was responding to Independent TD Seamus Healy who warned that up to 30,000 homeowners faced eviction because they did qualify for insolvency procedures as they had no disposable income and no disposable assets.

“They are people who have fully engaged with their lenders. They are not strategic defaulters. Their only asset is their home,” Mr Healy said. “They hold modest mortgages, many less than €100,000 and almost all less than €200,000.

They’re all low-income families, many headed by an unemployed person.”

The Tipperary-South TD said the banks were now using the equivalent of a “battering ram” with these mortgage holders.

He quoted from a letter sent by one bank, telling the mortgage holder that their options were voluntary sale or voluntary surrender and they would remain liable for any shortfall including interest.

Mr Healy urged the Taoiseach to urgently legislate to allow these families stay in their home.

Mr Kenny told him that neither of them was responsible for the tone of letters from banks.

But he said “the sad fact is that in a number of cases it is going to be very difficult for some people to hold onto their homes”.

But he said there were already 47,000 mortgages permanently restructured.

And the first first evidence of persons going through the personal solvency agency did not seem to indicate people being evicted.

“If they have a mortgage and they have a problem, the first thing they have to do is engage with the lender.

"There are requirements and codes and targets set out by the Central Bank to work out a solution in each and every case."