Brendan Burgess
Founder
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The Fair Mortgage Rates Campaign has two demands from politicians during this campaign. We invited the four main parties to attend a meeting last Monday and this is where they stand. If anyone finds updates on these issues in their Manifestos or other campaign literature, please let me know.
Fine Gael
Alan Farrell TD came to the meeting.
He agreed with the demand that existing customers should be treated the same as new customers.
He said that Fine Gael was completely against putting any cap on mortgage rates.
He said that their manifesto to be published this coming weekend will propose a code for mortgage switching.
The Minister for Finance has met the banks and asked them to lower their rates.
Brian Hayes MEP has been very active on the issue at a European Level raising it with the ECB.
Labour
Despite multiple emails to Labour, they did not send along a candidate "It's impossible to get them off the canvass" They did send a researcher who, when invited to speak, said he was just there to take notes.
The Labour Party has consistently been ignoring this issue. As far as I know, they are simply not concerned about it. I don't think that they have any policy on it.
The only exception has been Ciarán Lynch TD when he was Chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee. He did raise the topic with the lenders and with the Governor of the Central Bank.
They are proposing a levy of €350m on Irish banks. There is a real danger that if such a levy were introduced, it would simply be passed on to customers. It couldn't be passed on to tracker mortgage holders, so the non-tracker mortgage holders would carry the cost. €350 million on around €50 billion of non-tracker mortgage holders would be the equivalent of an additional 0.7% a year on the interest rate. Of course, the banks could seek to recover it from depositors or other borrowers as well. Indeed, they might just cut their profits accordingly.
Fianna Fáil
Michael McGrath, the party's finance spokesman came to the meeting.
Fully support our demand that existing customers should get the rates on offer to new customers.
Rather than a cap on mortgage rates, they propose legislation to give the Central Bank the power to cap mortgage rates. If the Central Bank does not use the power, then they would put the cap in the legislation. Their view is that simply giving the CB the tool, would give them more power in talking to the lenders.
McGrath has put down a motion in the Dáil on the topic and submitted a bill along the above lines which was voted down by the government. He has been constantly raising the issue and raising public awareness of it, most recently at the Oireachtas Finance Committee meeting with Governor Lane. He and other members of the party have raised it during the election campaign.
Sinn Féin
Pearse Doherty, the party's finance spokesperson came to the meeting.
They support our demand that existing customers should get the rates on offer to new customers.
They also would prefer not to put a cap in primary legislation but would give the Central Bank the authority to cap the rates. If the Central Bank does not use the power, then they would put the cap in the legislation.
They are opposed to the sell off of AIB and would use the state ownership of AIB to drive down rates.
Sinn Féin too proposed a bill to give the CB that power, but it too was voted down by the government.
I have been told that Mary Lou has raised the issue during the GE campaign. Gerry Adams raised it in the TV3 Leaders' Debate but the presenter moved immediately on to another subject.
Fine Gael
Alan Farrell TD came to the meeting.
He agreed with the demand that existing customers should be treated the same as new customers.
He said that Fine Gael was completely against putting any cap on mortgage rates.
He said that their manifesto to be published this coming weekend will propose a code for mortgage switching.
The Minister for Finance has met the banks and asked them to lower their rates.
Brian Hayes MEP has been very active on the issue at a European Level raising it with the ECB.
Labour
Despite multiple emails to Labour, they did not send along a candidate "It's impossible to get them off the canvass" They did send a researcher who, when invited to speak, said he was just there to take notes.
The Labour Party has consistently been ignoring this issue. As far as I know, they are simply not concerned about it. I don't think that they have any policy on it.
The only exception has been Ciarán Lynch TD when he was Chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee. He did raise the topic with the lenders and with the Governor of the Central Bank.
They are proposing a levy of €350m on Irish banks. There is a real danger that if such a levy were introduced, it would simply be passed on to customers. It couldn't be passed on to tracker mortgage holders, so the non-tracker mortgage holders would carry the cost. €350 million on around €50 billion of non-tracker mortgage holders would be the equivalent of an additional 0.7% a year on the interest rate. Of course, the banks could seek to recover it from depositors or other borrowers as well. Indeed, they might just cut their profits accordingly.
Fianna Fáil
Michael McGrath, the party's finance spokesman came to the meeting.
Fully support our demand that existing customers should get the rates on offer to new customers.
Rather than a cap on mortgage rates, they propose legislation to give the Central Bank the power to cap mortgage rates. If the Central Bank does not use the power, then they would put the cap in the legislation. Their view is that simply giving the CB the tool, would give them more power in talking to the lenders.
McGrath has put down a motion in the Dáil on the topic and submitted a bill along the above lines which was voted down by the government. He has been constantly raising the issue and raising public awareness of it, most recently at the Oireachtas Finance Committee meeting with Governor Lane. He and other members of the party have raised it during the election campaign.
Sinn Féin
Pearse Doherty, the party's finance spokesperson came to the meeting.
They support our demand that existing customers should get the rates on offer to new customers.
They also would prefer not to put a cap in primary legislation but would give the Central Bank the authority to cap the rates. If the Central Bank does not use the power, then they would put the cap in the legislation.
They are opposed to the sell off of AIB and would use the state ownership of AIB to drive down rates.
Sinn Féin too proposed a bill to give the CB that power, but it too was voted down by the government.
I have been told that Mary Lou has raised the issue during the GE campaign. Gerry Adams raised it in the TV3 Leaders' Debate but the presenter moved immediately on to another subject.