A local TD has called for mortgage debt write-downs of up to 30 per cent, it was revealed this week.
Deputy Willie Penrose was speaking at the constituency’s Labour Party AGM in his home town of Ballynacarrigy on Friday, where the guest speaker was his deputy leader, Joan Burton.
“I’m strongly of the view that a more radical solution is needed [on the subject of mortgage relief] and that is debt write-downs. There has to be debt write-downs. There is too much debt bearing down on people in trouble with their mortgages,” he declared.
He felt that people who had their mortgages paid should not be against helping those in trouble.
“If you want that view, that’s Maggie Thatcher’s view, the only person that counts is me. We’re bigger than that,” he said, referring to the former UK Prime Minister’s infamous quote that “There is no such thing as society, only individuals”.
“Give people a chance, otherwise there will be no money spent in the retail sector and jobs will disappear. Let’s be real here. The Government will get it back again as people will start spending,” he pointed out.
Getting the party political dig in as required at such a meeting, Deputy Penrose said: “It took us 800 years to win our independence only for Fianna Fáil to subsequently squander it”.
“They sold something that was hard won by our predecessors, our economic independence, and a country that is not economically independent is not politically independent either, and that’s very important to remember. When you don’t pull the level of political power and the minute we went into Government we were dictated to left, right, and centre.”
He strongly resisted the Troika’s demands to do away with the household benefits package while in Cabinet, and he was certain if Labour wasn’t in Government it would be removed by a Fine Gael only government.
“They have a different philosophy to us. They’d’ve wiped that [household benefits package]....tomorrow,” said Deputy Penrose.
He thanked the Labour Party members for their loyalty in such difficult times,
