Hated vulture funds have bought up €24 billion worth of loans -including tens of thousands of family mortgages - at less than half their true value, it was claimed on Wednesday.
Sinn Féin Finance spokesman Pearse Doherty has said that the true extent of the level of sales to vulture funds in Ireland is “frightening”.
Deputy Doherty made the claim after the Oireachtas Finance Committee received figures from the Department of Finance which show loans of over €24 billion have been sold, at an average discount of 52%.
Sinn Féin wants to have the law changed to prevent the sale of mortgages without the express written consent of the borrower concerned.
Deputy Doherty said that his ‘No Consent, No Sale’ Bill is now needed more than ever.
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He said: “The Government have consistently rebuffed my calls for regulation of the vulture funds, but the figures released today show the precarious situation that an unprecedented number of home owners and tenants are in.
“While facilitating loan sales to vultures, the Government has also designed a tax system that provides huge tax breaks to these funds.
“Simply put, this Government simply does not care that vultures are able to buy up enormous chunks of the home loan market and then pursue those unfortunate enough to have been jettisoned by their bank.
“My ‘No Consent, No Sale’ Bill will end this abuse of the market.
“This is a moral, as well as economic, question. What is easy to forget when discussing such vast sums of money is that this is someone’s home. This is the roof over a family’s heads. There must be an end to this vulture culture.”
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The Sinn Fein finance spokesman also accused the government of squandering taxpayers’ money by handing tax breaks to international investors who are hoarding properties.
Doherty said this practice was directly exacerbating the already chronic housing and homelessness crisis.
He added: “In the tax year ending July 2018, just €9million was paid in tax by Irish Real Estate Funds.
In the same period, Real Estate Investment Trusts, driven by mega-rich investors from abroad, didn’t pay a cent in corporation tax.
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“With these artificially inflated profits, real estate funds hoard property in Dublin and elsewhere to drive up house prices and rents, and ordinary citizens are the victims.
“We are in the midst of a historic housing crisis, but Fine Gael’s policy solution is one law for the rich, and one law for the rest.
“Instead of coming to the aid of record numbers of homeless citizens, Leo Varadkar and Paschal Donohoe have once again fallen in behind the big money.
“This is a national shame. No self-respecting government could, in good conscience, continue to squander millions of public money to shore up the profits of rogue real estate investors at the expense of working families.”
