NAMA scheme for mortgage arrears
Wednesday March 10 2010
Like their counterparts around the country, Sligo Local Authorities make countless calls to government on a wide range of topics, most of which fail to infiltrate the impenetrable wall of bureaucracy.
But one such call which has huge merit is the motion passed by Sligo Borough Council asking the Minister for Finance to introduce a NAMA style scheme for the 44,000 householders now facing serious arrears in their mortgage repayments, many of whom face the nightmare scenario of having their family homes repossessed by banks and other lending institutions.
The complaint that billions of tax payers money will be spent bailing out the banks while ordinary men and women run the risk of eviction from their homes by these same institutions is so well worn by now that it has almost become a hackneyed cliché.
But it is nonetheless authentic. Many people, particularly young couples in the early stages of rearing a family, have been lured into excessive borrowing and are now being hounded for repayments they can no longer afford. Job losses and wage cuts serve only to compound the problem.
It seems those who caused the crisis are being thrown a lifejacket while the victims are left to flounder helplessly in the flood waters.
Yesterday, we learned how an AIB executive walked away with total pay and benefits of almost €90,000 even those his bank needed a €3.5bn bail out from taxpayers to survive. Directors from that bank collected over €3.5m in salaries, pension payments and company car allowance last year. The former chairman pocketed €203,000 before his retirement --not a bad reward for putting up with an egg pelting by angry shareholders.
Those figures must surely make sickening reading for the unfortunate householders who open the dreaded red letter from their mortgage provider.
The Borough Council's move is not the first such initiative to emanate from Sligo. Ahead of the posse was the work of the locally-based 'Prevention of Family Home Repossession Group', whose innovative work helped provoke national debate and some action on the problem.
The government has committed itself to helping home owners struggling with mortgage repayments, but there is clearly need for a more meaningful intervention. The proposal put forward by Clr. Matt Lyons and unanimously supported by his local colleagues deserves to be given serious consideration at national level.
