Vulture funds failure to appear before Oireachtas Committee is unacceptable – Coghlan

Speaking in the Seanad, Government Chief Whip and Senator for Kerry, Paul Coghlan, said that the failure of vulture funds to appear before the Oireachtas Finance Committee is totally unacceptable.

“Following media reports concerning the jailing of borrowers at the behest of a vulture fund earlier this year, I secured the agreement of the Finance Committee to invite some of the vulture funds operating in Ireland to come before the Committee to outline their approach to dealing with borrowers in distress.

“This was a unanimous decision of the Committee and invitations were extended to five funds deemed by members to be the vulture capitalists or debt investors who are most active in the Irish market.

“The date for their appearance was fixed for next week and they were given advanced notice. I now understand that all of the vulture funds have indicated they will be snubbing the Committee and not attending.

“We, as members of the Oireachtas, have a duty to represent the general public. Many people have found that their personal, home or business loans were sold to these debt investors.

“We have heard from the Banks about how they treat people in mortgages arrears but we have not heard from the debt investors and there are real concerns that people are not being treated fairly.

“There are some suggestions that some of these entities have been behaving disgracefully; jailing people whose loans they have bought and breaching the terms of Personal Insolvency Arrangement by putting pressure on customers who have reached a deal.

“There are other concerns around the extent of the discount that some loans were acquired at and questions as to whether borrowers are being screwed by these companies.

“These vulture funds are unaccountable, are largely unregulated in Ireland and are in line to make considerable profits from the loans that they acquired from banks in Ireland.

“The vulture funds in question have apparently declined the reasonable invitation of the Finance Committee and we need to ensure that they don’t try and give this Parliament the slip, hoping that they can spin us along until the election.

“I am sure there will be widespread support for measures to make these vulture funds accountable and responsible. We can look at compelling them to attend and should probably widen the review to other funds operating in the market in Ireland. I will speak to my colleagues in the Finance Committee but would hope that I have widespread support in my attempt to hold these entities to greater accountability.”