Family home owners should not be evicted, says Ryan

The leader of the Green Party has said people living in a family home who cannot afford to pay their mortgage should not be evicted from that house.

Eamon Ryan was responding to questions on the plight of the O’Sullivan family in Kanturk, Co Cork, who are facing eviction after Start Mortgages secured a repossession order after two years of default on their €180,000 mortgage.

“There are instances where it would be right to sell a family home, let’s say where you have a massive house and you can downscale or, in another case, where it’s the right thing for the person to do,” he said during a visit to Cork.

“But there will be other instances where people have the obligation to do what they can, and if they can’t do that, then they don’t lose the family home.”

Self-employed plumber Martin O’Sullivan lost his business during the bust and has not made a mortgage repayment to Start for two years.

While Start’s repossession proceedings against the O’Sullivans started in the High Court in 2010, the family recently offered to pay up to €400 a month after Martin found work.

But Mr O’Sullivan says Start has rejected this.

While Mr Ryan admitted he wasn’t fully aware of the detail of the O’Sullivans’ case, he said there is a principle, with which all political parties agree, that you do not evict from the family home a person who simply cannot afford to pay their mortgage.

He said he has been assured by Central Bank governor, Patrick Honohan, the bank capitalisation was enough to cover such circumstances.

Mr Ryan also said he believes the Government could do more to help families like the O’Sullivans and that the current legislation designed to help those in mortgage arrears, while protecting the family home to a certain extent, is weaker than he would like.

He also called for subprime lenders like Start to shut down their “fundamentally flawed” business.

He described subprime lenders like Start as the “worst artefact of the Celtic Tiger boom banking bust”.

As supporters enter day four of a vigil outside the O’Sullivan family home in the Dun an Oir estate to prevent their eviction, legal advisers yesterday failed, for a third time, to secure the file in the High Court.

Kilkenny-based peace commissioner Noel Walsh, who holds a law degree, was yesterday advised by a High Court registrar the O’Sullivan file could only be obtained by a practising solicitor.

Mr Walsh, a noted anti- eviction campaigner, said: “I have it in writing from the family, on official High Court documents, that I am their legal representative. This is the third time we went to the High Court but we were told the documentation presented by us to get access to the files, was not acceptable.”

Meanwhile, while Mr O’Sullivan insists his family will enjoy Christmas in the house, the family still faces an uncertain future.