We support this motion because behind every statistic is a family like the one I met last week. They were parents who missed repayments after illness and a job loss. They begged their bank for help and tried to restructure. Instead, they had their mortgage sold off in a bundle to a vulture fund. The house they built a life in is gone but the letters keep coming, telling them they still owe every cent. The fund, having bought the loan at a knock-down price, is now chasing them for the full balance with interest. That is not a market; it is an injustice. We know how we got here. After the crash, vast loan books were offloaded at deep discounts. The clearest benchmark is NAMA's own numbers: €74 billion in par value loans ultimately sold for €38.1 billion - about 43% off face value. The discount went to the fund, but the bills stayed with the families and they were never offered the same deal. When these loans are transferred, families often face punishing interest rates and gaps in protection. Thousands of borrowers whose mortgages were sold to non-banks have been hit with rates in the 8% to 10% range while being effectively trapped and unable to switch. Even the Central Bank acknowledged legal loopholes in past years that left some of these borrowers outside normal Ombudsman protections. That is a systematic failure, not a personal one. The moral is wrong. It is that the distressed mortgage is worth more to the fund dead than alive. It can be more profitable to evict a family than to help a family to stay because the fund can extract the full balance, even though it bought the debt at a discount, and never have to offer the family the same terms. If there is any decency left in policy, families must have the right to restructure or buy back their loans on the same basis at which the fund acquired it. This motion is not radical. It is retrospective. Ban investment funds from buying family homes. Close the loopholes. Stop the bulk-buying. Shut the revolving door of repossession and resale that treats homes as yields and families as entries on a spreadsheet. In 2023, 623 homes were bulk purchased by 16 investors - hundreds of keys that should have gone to first-time buyers. The so-called deterrent of stamp duty has plainly not worked. If anyone here still thinks this is just about numbers on a balance sheet, they should look at the human cost today. As we enter 2026, we are at a historic high: 17,000 people are homeless, including over 4,000 children. A home is not a financial instrument; it is where a child does homework and a parent finds rest after a long day. Offer families the same deal the vulture funds get. Put homes back in the hands of the people. Pass this motion, for fairness, for decency and for the families we are elected to protect.

Sentiment score: -0.07