Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It might be helpful to the committee, if it is possible, for Insurance Ireland to contact its members to ask what happens when, on renewal or the taking out of a new policy, the insurance company is informed there is deleterious material in the blocks.

What is the impact then in terms of insurance and has insurance not been provided on that basis?

Finally, I will turn to the BPFI. I spoke earlier about the fact that the scheme does not work. I appreciate the fact that the federation put an offer on the table and it is scandalous, to say the least, that the Government took so long to make a decision. It has rejected the proposal but I always thought it was more beneficial for the Department to make the grant payment upfront, instead of having to go through the financial institutions. I know the institutions only put that on the table to be helpful and I understand that the proposal that is under consideration will not cut it. It is only for professional fees, which is a serious problem.

I have raised an issue privately and will raise it publicly now, which is that the banks need to come up with a product. They came up with a product which was a zero-interest loan which required a commitment from the State. In my view, the banks really need to come up with a product that is extremely low interest to help these individuals. I say that in the context of the net interest margins of some of the banks having increased. There is a lot of profitability within banks now. A lot of these people, though not all of them, are already customers of the banks. This is about restoring the asset value on the banks' balance sheets, as well as restoring their homes. I have countless letters here on this. One is from loyal customers of one of the pillar banks for 17 years who were refused a mortgage. Before they even get off the ground they are looking at €20,000 in engineering fees, €20,000 to €30,000 to demolish the house and €15,000 for preliminary works. This is all before they even start building. They need a top-up loan of about €90,000 to be able to rebuild their home under the grant scheme. They need about €90,000. They still have a bit of mortgage and have been with a pillar bank for 17 year but they have been refused. That is them dead in the water; they are not building their house. They talk in their letter about the immense stress. In fairness, I have seen correspondence between the BPFI and the Department released under FOI and I know the federation has been talking about the immense stress that some customers are under. I have other examples of people who have been refused mortgages. One is a tracker mortgage customer. Tracker mortgage holders have seen their interest rates increase ten times. This customer is 57 years old. People of that age are not even contacting the banks because they know they are not going to get a loan. We all know what. They will not get a loan at that age, not to mention the pressure they are already under with repayments. We need to find a way to provide a lower interest loan. There are green loans and other types of products in the banking sector already. This is a unique and serious crisis. I really appeal to the banks to step into the breach and find a way to support those who need to go to 100%. I want to confirm to everyone that if Sinn Féin wins the next election, the banks will not have to do that because we will provide the people with 100% redress and they will not need a top-up loan. In the meantime, however, until we get that election, the banks should help their customers in a better way. The interest rates are making it impossible for people and even if the banks provided a zero-interest loan, in many cases the people would not be able to pay it back anyway. Some of them are pensioners and do not have the disposable income to pay it back. We need to find some way for the banks to do a bit more.