The Vultures are circling again – only Sinn Féin’s No Consent, No Sale Bill can defend Irish families

» Pearse Doherty

A cabal has formed that seeks to provide plenty of fodder for the unyielding appetite of Vultures – at massive cost to families in need of help.

On Thursday, Ulster Bank announced that they would be flogging more mortgages belonging to Irish families, ripping their homes from under them and handing them to faceless Vulture Funds.

We all know about the Vultures – secretive international investors hovering over the Irish economy, seeking out families in mortgage distress, and then doing whatever they see fit to turn a quick profit. If this means turfing a family out on to the street, so be it.

Ulster Bank’s coming sale is not the first and, without doubt, it will not be the last.

A cabal has formed that seeks to provide plenty of fodder for the unyielding appetite of Vultures – at massive cost to families in need of help.

It involves Irish banks, seeking to boost profits and dump struggling loans at a discount. It features the European Commission, hurrying banks to offload loans regardless of the spiralling social cost.

And it is gleefully championed by an Irish government, led by Fine Gael and backed by Fianna Fáil, which is rolling out the red carpet for Vultures, allowing them to target Irish families and letting them avoid taxes for the pleasure.

In total, this cosy consensus has allowed tens of billions of euros worth of family mortgages to be passed from Irish banks into the coffers of Vultures.

This is the mark of a broken economy. What self-respecting government gives dishes out ludicrous tax breaks to Vulture funds that thrive by feeding off distressed families in the middle of a crippling housing crisis?

This is a government without any understanding of the reality of the burden and anxiety they have created for countless families across the state, or without a care for how they should help them. It is a government without a moral compass.

Sinn Féin is drawing a line in the sand. The Vulture’s feast is over, and enough is enough.

Our No Consent, No Sale Bill will empower Irish families to keep the Vultures from their door. It will give them to right to say ‘No’. It gives them the right to deal directly with the bank with whom they took out their mortgage. It prevents their mortgage being sold off without their permission, or even their knowledge, until one day a letter arrives saying the Vultures have struck.

Our Bill represents the heart of Sinn Féin’s politics – citizens first, before the banks’ bottom line, before the government’s relentless right-wing agenda, and before Fine Gael’s tax breaks for faceless Vultures.

In Europe, Matt Carthy MEP has campaigned tirelessly against the Commission’s attempts to empower the Vultures even further.

So as the Vultures mount up again for their latest deal with Ulster Bank, it’s time to pick a side. Indeed, there are now only two sides to choose from.

We can choose to continue letting Fine Gael create their Vulture economy, with handouts to billionaires targeting Irish families and international landlords filling their pockets on the back of a housing crisis. We can continue to allow this government to sell out Irish families in a state of distress to the highest bidder.

Or we can choose to fight back. We can kick the Vultures out, stand up for Irish families, and end this government’s crusade against the most vulnerable in society.

You either stand with the Vultures, or you stand with the people. For Sinn Féin, it’s an easy choice, and we won’t rest until Irish families are safe and secure once again.