Mattie McGrath Blasts 'Vulture Funds' Bill, Warns of Evictions

Go ra ma ha gud, or whatever, finish, go ra ma ha gud. Minister, I want to wish you well in your new post, it's the first time I think I addressed you in this role, and I do wish you well, and I know you've a hard job to sort out, because I've raised many issues before about the Prison Officers Association, and what's going on in that association, and it's totally unsaid, but it needs to be sorted out. The whole issue of justice for the Omer Baum families, which were abandoned and never got the justice that were promised by your predecessors and your previous Taoiseach, and indeed, many, many have had a Niall Malai case, and there are countless cases out there that need justice for our people. Minister, I'm really shocked that you would slip in this part of this legislation for the vulture funds especially. The bill is called the Civil Law and Criminal Law Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2 to 20, intended to primarily deal with the issues surrounding COVID. We all support that. But now hidden in Chapter 3 is the section dealing with business records. Very murky, very late, and probably won a holiday season. I'm not late, but to the last hours of this doll. Section 3 of the bill is designed for vultures by their well-paid legal advisers to remove any protections for people from vultures. Today, Fianna Fáil, it seems, Fianna Gael and the Greens want to push ahead with a little-known bill that seeks to hide what is very devious attempts by this coalition to get around the hearsay evidence rule, the 150-year-old law that has stopped vultures in their tracks, one of the only ones that has done so. In a nutshell, the vultures have demanded that the government enact legislation that allows them to get around the hearsay rule by introducing admissible business documents from third parties. That currently has no legal standing in the courts. No legal standing. There are photocopies of original documents, and they have been lost, destroyed or not available, or many other reasons. The bill will also allow photocopies of photocopies to be allowed into evidence so that a family can be evicted. It is just truly shocking. The bill attempts to undermine the independence of the courts, to look at a case fairly and impartially, and seek to tie the hands of the judiciary so that vulture funds continue with their evictions. They have done right through Covid, in spite of getting promises that they would not. This proposed bill in the lower house will, in a matter of days, be signed by the President Michael D. Higgins. Over the years, there have been pushes to have this serious evidence, the Vultures Act taken out of the Book of Justice by the Justice Law Reform Commission, as well as other parties, with vested interest in its removal. It is understood that heavy lobbying by vulture funds and legal representatives to the Department of Justice, following recent judgments, and thus the concern is that the government have jumped for the job and did their bidding. That is shocking. We are all the time railing against what is going on with these vultures. The Prime Minister Michael Noonan said they were welcome to our shores. Vultures are not welcome anywhere, because we know what they do. Vultures, when sheep and young lambs are out in the fields, they take the eyes at them. That is what they are like, vultures. Craven people. As I said, it is understood that the heavy lobbying has done this. If the bill passes all stages and is signed into law, the balance of power will automatically be with the vulture funds, and they will not afford any protections to family, or home, or in business. All parties and independents need to step up to the plate here to oppose this bill. I am glad the amendments are down, and I am supporting the Sinn Féin amendments. If you let the vulture funds dictate how to run the country, then you are allowing a grievous injustice to prevail, and punishing those who have been fighting, not just battles, and the courts for many daily battles for many years. Minister, it is a shocking indictment on the present government and where they are going. I also want to bring a mention to a case, Minister, where the important issue of justice would like to raise the due development of deep importance to all citizens. On 9 July, the European Court of Justice issued a damning judgment against the nation in respect of handling all maritime tragedies and investigations, finding clear and obvious fault in the fact that the Department of Officials should not be in the supposedly independent marine casualty investigation board. Of the five-person board, two of the members have been the chief surveyor and, indeed, the secretary-general of the department. An additional requirement for compliant officials is clearly set out in the European Directive, which reflects international law. This is a damning indictment, Minister, on our marine casualty investigation board. I have been raising cases here, and there are cases in Whitty Island that go back to many cases all over the country, and down off the south-east coast as well, in Tramore. The ECJ judgment also explains that independence is critical in order that we learn from the tragedies and other lives are saved. Ireland has definitely failed to put in place suitable arrangements within a clear conflict in place, where officials have effectively been investigating their own regulatory framework and supposedly making recommendations themselves. Following the judgment, I wrote to Minister Nocton in relation to the failed reports regarding the deaths of my constituents John O'Brien and Pat Esmond after held big head in 2010, and all other people who have led investigations and with conflict in place, namely 300 or so reports. In relation to John O'Brien and Pat Esmond's tragedy, due to these fundamental failings, I have been reliably told that full information was not included in the MCIB report, which had the effect of compromising the Garda investigation and needs to be investigated. I am happy that the Minister has now directed the Garda criminal investigation bureau to reopen this case and look at it. I thank Mr. Michael Kingston, a maritime liar, and I thank Anne-Marie O'Brien for doing selling work, in an effort to get justice for her late brother and his colleague John O'Brien on a fatal day, and a beautiful day back ten years ago. Those families need justice. Many of the other families need justice as well. Minister, on the coroners, and has referred to this bill as well, we are losing our coroner in South Tipperary, Paul Morris, an excellent legal person who was given selling service, and he was losing him, and now we are being pushed in. The North Tipperary coroner is taking over in South Tipperary. Tipperary is a long county, over 120 miles long, at the distance alone, and coroners courts are very important, and people who have tragedies and certain debts they need. The coroner in South Tipperary has always been much bigger than North Tipperary. It is a retrograde step, and a downgrading of our court services again, and another loss to our town of Clonmel. I want to wish Paul Morris a very happy retirement from the job. He did a great job, and I wish him well. But look, we need to have our coroner in place in South Tipperary, as we always had. So there are cuts out of her, but when it comes to vulture funds, we want to support them. We want to pass legislation here, literally in the dead of night, here this evening, to ensure, before our break for our holidays, to allow the vultures to carry on. Their murky, seemly, disdainful carry-on. They have been doing it through Covid, and they are continuing to do it, and I am not supporting this bill for that reason, and I am voting against it.