The Keane report on mortgage debt is to be published tomorrow and debated by the Dáil next week, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said today.
The review group, headed by KPMG accountant Declan Keane is examining measures to help distressed mortgage-holders. Its report is not expected to recommend widespread debt forgiveness.
“The report furnished to the Government is not the repository of all wisdom,” he added.
Mr Kenny said there were fundamental principles which needed to be referred to. The first was the necessity to maintain people in their own homes and the second was to distinguish between those who could pay and those who would not.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Kenny said he appreciated the anxiety and concern of people who were afflicted by mortgage distress. However, he said there will be no "blanket" write-off of mortgage debt.
He said Government wanted alternatives to having people losing their homes.
“That is a fundamental principle which we want to hold on to,’’ he added.
“We must distinguish between those who cannot pay and those who will not pay.’’
The Taoiseach was replying to Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, who said very extensive leaks of the report would be greeted with bitter disappointment by the 95,000 home owners who had mortgage difficulties.
“While there may be a few speculators among these, the vast majority are victims of the greed of developers and Irish bankers facilitated by European bankers and speculators,” Mr Higgins added.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore last month also ruled out a blanket write-off. “The suggestion that there be a blanket write-off of mortgage debt is not realistic and is only giving people who are in genuine mortgage difficulty false expectations, which is not doing them any good,” said Mr Gilmore.
Figures released last month showed the level of arrears rose to a new peak of almost 9 per cent in July based on a sample of €55 million of Irish residential mortgages.
Credit rating agency Moody’s said arrears of 90 days or more in a pool of mortgages, which accounts for almost half of the State’s mortgages, rose to 8.78 per cent in July from 7.62 per cent in April.
This is a further sharp deterioration since the Central Bank said last month that arrears had risen to 7.2 per cent in June.
