Joe Behan - Independent Councillor - Wicklow County Council


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Vultures Circle Again

Archive Statements > 2018

Vultures Circle Again
21st February 2018

Vulture Funds are yet again set to feast on the carcass of the Irish taxpayer, by grabbing distressed mortgages sold for a song by State owned PTSB.

Incredibly, thousands of homeowners will be abandoned by the Government and evicted from their homes by international financiers and high rollers. PTSB is our bank. We own it. We rescued it from the consequences of its own greed and incompetence and we still can’t control it.

I am extremely concerned that this move against distressed PTSB mortgage holders will be followed by similar actions by other banks which owe their very existence to the hard-pressed Irish taxpayers, namely Bank of Ireland and AIB.

I am aware of some homeowners whose distressed loans have been bought by one vulture fund and then flipped to another and then another. Each time this happens, the new vulture takes a cut and the home owner remains under severe pressure and worry that they will be evicted.

Meanwhile, the Government firstly defends the PTSB action and then hypocritically says its concern is for the families who might be evicted! I firmly believe that this project has already been given the green light and eventually, as always, the banks will get their way.

The power of Vulture Funds has been seen closer to home in recent months when an American Vulture Fund, Starwood, was given a present of €500,000 by Wicklow County Council. This was part of a deal approved by the ruling majority of Councillors which allowed Starwood a period of 5 years to flip a site on the Southern Cross Road in Bray to allow it to achieve maximum profit. This is yet another example of the craven cowardice which allows vultures to continue to pick over the carcass of post recession Ireland – a cowardice that extends all the way to the top of Government.

Cllr. Joe Behan

Independent



Serving the people of County Wicklow since 1985 | joebehan@outlook.ie

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