by Alan Jacques
WITH new figures showing that 166 repossession orders have been lodged in the courts in Limerick in 2015, Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea has hit out at the Government for ignoring the “escalating crisis”.
The banks, he pointed out, have also continued with their repossession efforts over the last year, with 15 homes repossessed in Limerick between July and September.
“The Government introduced the Mortgage-to-Rent scheme with the view to keeping people in their homes. However, the scheme has been a complete failure with only 2.9 per cent of the 98,137 mortgage holders in arrears nationally actually applying to use the scheme,” Deputy O’Dea told the Limerick Post.
“The success rate of mortgage holders who have applied to the scheme is equally abysmal, with a mere three per cent getting through the application process successfully. In Limerick, up to the end of June only 4 out of 113 applicants have had their applications approved to join the scheme.”
According to Deputy O’Dea, who is Fianna Fáil spokesman on Social Protection, more than 15 per cent of mortgage accounts for family homes are now in arrears, which is more than three times higher than the figure at the end of December 2010.
The most recent statistics from the Central Bank show that 117,000 principal dwelling house mortgage accounts are in arrears; almost 60,000 of these are in arrears of a year or more.
He continued: “The country is potentially facing 25,000 home repossessions next year alone. Homeless figures for families have risen five fold since January. Three families are becoming homeless every single day and 1,570 children are currently sleeping in emergency accommodation.
“This crisis is going to get much worse unless the Government shakes itself out of its slumber and develops coherent policies for keeping families in their homes.”
