Yeah, seems kinds obvious: drop the rate of the loan, pop a couple of years on the end so mortgage holders can make the monthly repayments so you have less default and less poisoned assets on the books…how much did it cost to get the report done.

I’d say we’ve nothing to lose at this stage! We practically own the banks anyway! One thing’s for sure though! The government being the bunch of clowns that they are, will manage to find some way of making a complete bollox of it!

Ahh Iceland the tiny country that burned all bondholders and the world did not come to an end and also put its prime minister on trial…. just pity we only have a letter in the difference and not a government .Fking IMF they getting plenty of first hand feedback on how not to revitalise a economy by observing its litle lab rat Ireland…

Duh! The dogs in the streets knew that. Austerity has never worked. Good to see the vulturistic IMF powers come down to Earth!

Somehow progressive political thinking and the average Irish politician don’t sit too well together…

Well instead of debt reduction, our government, in it’s infinite wisdom, decides to instate an arbitrary household tax. It’s as if not satisfied with a destroyed economy, they now wish to grind post-sovereign Ireland into the earth with their expensive designer shoes. That’s what we get when we vote kleptocrats into power. Maybe next time we’ll vote right and won’t have to pay so much protection money.

The German Franco alliance will block such a move as its not in their economies/banks interests. The welfare of over stretched Irish families is of little concern to the big players. Ireland would be better of dropping out of the Euro at this point to implement such measures and get people spending again. It’s our only hope.

Would it not of made more sense to do this study BEFORE they bailed out countries? Study first, speak later.

Agree with this. Also think that this country should also look long and hard at the tax rate, are they over-taxing the public? Is this bad for the Economy. My opinion is yes and yes. I also think that a few steps to improve competition in the retail sector (esp supermarkets) would have a beneficial effect on increasing disposable income. I can’t help but feel there is an oligopoly keeping prices artificially high when compares to other European countries. Increase disposable income and you increase the flows in your Ecomony, multiplier effect, increase employment, economic growth, etc, etc.

A similar scheme to Iceland (as suggested by Joan Burton but now mysteriously never mentioned again – maybe this report will jog her memory) is the ONLY solution to get this economy back on track. This involved reducing all negative-equity mortgages to a maximum of 110% of the property value. Rather than adding the remaining money onto the end of the mortgage – as has been suggested by posters here – that portion of the debt was simply forgiven. This provided certainty to homeowners and kickstarted the housing market and real economy.

It may seem unfair that we all pay for debt forgiveness for the minority, however money saved on mortgage debt goes straight back into the real economy and this is better for everyone.

Struggling homeowners will likely save some money (good for the banks and those they lend to) but will almost certainly spend the majority of what they save on mortgage payments in the real economy – the local shop, pub, mechanic, plumber, builders. This is good for everyone and is what this economy badly needs.

Sometimes the best solutions are the most straightforward. We need about 12 billion to fix the negative equity problem in this way – we will also be asking lenders to Ireland to forgive similar sums… lets use that money to handle the mortgage problem before it becomes a major crisis, dragging the economy yet further into the mire.

You think the economy is bad now? Unless household debt is addressed, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Completely agree. More money in the economy is vital.

Any morgage forgiveness results in a hit to the bank, which are underwritten fully by the Government so the taxpayer picks up the bill. So why not give very person in the state a share of the money that would be have been allocated to the mortage forgiveness. That should result in a higher % of the money entering the economy as some of the people who receive will be in a better position to spend on spontaneous or non-critical items compared to only those looking for mortage forgiveness. House prices are screwed anyway, so the odd foreclosure wont change anything dramatically.

The taxpayer is underwriting all of this away, so each taxpayer might as well be involved in the flow of money back in to the economy.

Allowing household debt to be restructured will help economy. They needed to say this in “a major report”. They should rename the IMF the SBO … Staters of the Bleeding’ Obvious!

More money in the economy is a very very good thing. It is exactly the lack of money in the real economy that is causing our current difficulties.

How do you suggest we reduce unemployment if not by increasing spending?? How many shops, mechanics, plumbers etc will hire without customers?

What is your solution to kickstart the real economy?