Sinn Féin has urged the government to introduce its 'No Consent, No Sale' Bill to help protect homeowners.

The Sinn Féin Bill aims to ensure that banks cannot sell a homeowner's mortgages to a vulture fund or third party without the borrower's consent.

The party's Dublin Bay North TD Denise Mitchell, who discussed the Bill in the Dáil, said: "Unfortunately in recent years it has become very clear that voluntary codes of practice for financial institutions and banks are not worth the paper they are written on. This Bill is common sense, it just enforces what the Central Bank already outlines as the correct way to deal with loans."

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She added: "The reality is that most vulture funds have no interest in working with the borrower to restructure or renegotiate their loans.

"They want to get their hands on the home and to resell it for a profit. But do we really want to see this becoming the norm here?

"This Bill protects homeowners and seeks to place control back in the hands of customers," Deputy Mitchell concluded. 

(CM/MH)