"Over 6,500 households are in mortgage arrears of greater than one year and face the prospect of repossession of their home come the 1st of March when the one year moratorium on repossessions granted by Bank of Ireland and AIB comes to an end. Last year the Government had to be bounced into a situation where the banks were

forced to implement the moratorium. One would have thought that Fianna Fail and the Greens would not want to be as lax again when it comes to the repossession moratorium ending.

"However, when pushed on this, the Taoiseach refused to clarify what the Government or the banks would do and instead made vague points about mortgage interest subsidy initiatives. This response will not to help all those households who face the prospect of losing their home in 23 days.

 

"As an interim measure, until the Government is willing to come up with solutions to solve this problem, the moratorium on housing repossessions should be extended indefinitely. Alongside this, Fine Gael has a plan to help those in dire need and protect the thousands of Irish families facing repossession of their family home.

 

"Our Homeowner Support Scheme would allow NAMA to take an equity share in a property after negotiating a write-down in the outstanding debt with the relevant financial institution. The property owner would then service his or her remaining share of the debt and pay a rental fee to NAMA for the equity share taken by the Agency. The homeowner

will have an option to buy back the NAMA equity share and if the property is sold, NAMA will receive its share of the sale."