Wicklow TD's played their part in the escalation of home repossessions by the banks-Brady

Wicklow Sinn Féin general election candidate councillor John Brady has slammed Wicklow’s 5 TDs for playing their part in facilitating the repossession by the banks of 41 homes in Wicklow up to the end of September, there are a further 131 Circuit Court orders sought on primary homes across Wicklow. This is nearly a 300% increase on the 2014 figure of 14.

Speaking after the latest figures were released councillor Brady said “Thousands of families are living in fear of losing their home. Hard working families who bought average family homes are being dragged through the courts by their lenders. These are the very same banks that were bailed out by the taxpayer. The average level of mortgage distress nationally measured by mortgage accounts in arrears of 90 days or more is 11.2%. In Wicklow its estimated there are over 11,500 mortgages in arrears and slightly ahead of the nationally average. This means one mortgage in six in Wicklow is in arrears.”

“Last year 7,100 families had court proceedings lodged against them. Over the past nine months banks have lodged 4,500 eviction proceedings with the courts. Every month banks are lodging hundreds of fresh court actions against families in mortgage distress. In Wicklow there have been 131 Circuit Court orders sought by the banks on primary homes between January and September this year.”

The Wicklow councillor sharply criticised all 5 Wicklow TD’s saying “In 2013 all 5 Wicklow TDs, including opposition TD Stephen Donnelly, passed the Land and Conveyancing Act. This act was to make it easier for the banks to repossess the family home and since then there has been a tenfold increase in court actions each month. There have been 1088 in the first nine months of this year compared with 644 during the same period in 2014 and 240 during the same period in 2013. The pattern is clear.”

Cllr Brady concluded ““The Irish people bailed out the banks to the tune of €64billion, Wicklow’s 5 TDs gave the same banks the effective go-ahead to evict families from their homes and that’s exactly what we are seeing now. The playing field between banks and homeowners needs to be levelled by making the repossession of the Family Home a less attractive option for banks. The government also need to stand up to the banks and insist that they provide families with sustainable solutions to mortgage distress.”