A MOTION CALLING for a national mortgage strike will be debated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at its conference today.

The motion has been proposed by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and calls on Congress to “prepare for and if necessary, implement” a mortgage strike.

David Hughes, the Deputy General Secretary of the INMO said that Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed to the ICTU conference on Monday that Irish taxpayers will pay €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish Bank every 31 March for the foreseeable future.

Hughes said that the INMO wants a broad-based campaign demanding that mortgages on principle private residences be lowered to reflect house values.

He also wants laws to penalise those “who commit financial treason” and called for a charter of rights to be implemented.

Congress and the majority of economists have now declared that Ireland’s debt is unmanageable and there is no moral justification behind the demands that Irish tax payers alone should pay it. Yet, we as a nation continue to pay.

He added that public protest and strikes in ireland and Greece “have so far failed to persuade Government to resist the demands of international bankers and opportunist markets”

The fight must now be taken to those markets and banks by depriving them of their only resource which is our willingness to pay.