Govt to defer decision on mortgage debt

The Government has said there is no “one size fits all” solution to the mortgage debt issue, with ministers to defer any decisions on the matter until an expert group reports next month.

The latest development follows comments by Finance Minister Michael Noonan earlier today which indicated that recapitalised banks have enough money to write off some mortgage debt.

This evening following a Cabinet meeting a government spokesperson said that while ministers had agreed on the necessity of keeping people in their homes, any steps to be taken would likely involve a tailored approach rather than blanket debt forgiveness.

The mortgage debt issue has come to a head following new figures that show 55,000 householders behind with their repayments for more than three months.

Prior to today’s Cabinet meeting Minister Noonan had said the problem was “manageable”, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the government was “acutely aware” of the difficulties some families were facing.

“The Government and members of the Cabinet are acutely aware of this because we meet them every day,” Mr Kenny said.

“We have commissioned a report on a broad range of issues here and we will make decisions when that comes to hand.”

The Cabinet meeting was the first since the end of the summer break. The Dail is to resume on September 14.

Mr Kenny said there was a lot of challenging political work ahead, but the Cabinet would not shirk its responsibility.

“I will be getting reports from all our ministers about the work that we have to do to the year end and the budget towards the end of the year,” the Taoiseach said.

“So there have been optimistic steps and confidence building measures happening over the summer but there is a great deal of work up ahead and the Cabinet will not shirk its responsibility, both in telling the people what the scale of the problem is, and how we propose to deal with it.”