Noonan feeds the vulnerable to the vultures

Beside them, the car they allegedly drove up in - and which we will see them later drive off in - has no insurance or tax disc displayed and the registration number is covered over with tape. This is undoubtedly illegal.

Local men confront them, clearly agitated. Thankfully, there are gardai present and the traffic violations are quickly pointed out to them.

Except that, as the video footage unfolds, it becomes disturbingly clear that the gardai have no intention of noting these offences, that they are there purely to assist the hooded men in gaining access to the house. They are on the side of what looks like the bad guys.

Welcome to a modern-day Irish eviction. (There was a doubling in the number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders in Ireland between 2010 and 2013, new research has found.)

This time it fails. The heavy gang leave in their car which still lacks a visible registration number. This time there was no paperwork which allowed them to legally enter the property - but if members of the Anti-Eviction Taskforce had not been present to vociferously, but peacefully, protest, yet another family would have found themselves homeless by nightfall.

Well, that's what happens isn't it? When you can't pay your debts, when you fall behind on your mortgage, when the bank lent you money with no questions or queries beyond "how much?" and "sure, would you not like a few thousand more?" But now, kiddo, it's payback time.

Well, for some people it is anyway. But we know a few things now that we didn't know back in 2007. We know, courtesy of Ajai Chopra, that the EU issued an ultimatum to Ireland at the time of the bailout. We know that the ECB would not allow us to burn senior bondholders. We know that we are still paying billions in interest because of this unfortunate "mistake".

We know this week, thanks to NTMA chief executive Conor O'Kelly, that every worker in the country pays an extra €3,400 in tax every year compared with just €900 in 2007. We know we were taken for a ride by banks, the bondholders, and the head honchos in Europe - as well as our own crowd. And we know, as O'Kelly said, that our State debt pile of €207bn, €102,000 per employee, is "easily the highest in Europe, by a mile". To be clear he added: "It's one of the highest ratios in the world."

Which may explain why so many people are finding it so difficult to service 2007 mortgages with 2016 wages (that's if they're still lucky enough to be working).

Half the bloody economy is going into a black hole of debt repayments. The average Irish worker took the hit for all those bondholders and bankers who were allowed play financial roulette with no consequences to themselves if they lost everything.

You'd think the Government would feel a little bit sheepish about that now, wouldn't you? You'd presume that they would go a bit easy on Joe and Josephine Soap who were unfortunate enough to need a mortgage when prices were beyond the moon and the banks were happy to feed the insanity? And you'd certainly think that, in light of our enormous State debt (remember, "the highest in Europe, by a mile"!) Michael Noonan would still be in the market for a bit of debt forgiveness from the EU or IMF.

You'd think, maybe they'd listen to people - like those in the Anti-Eviction Taskforce, The Phoenix Project, Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, The Hub and all those other groups working at the coalface of people who are in despair at the prospect of losing their homes, and maybe ask the banks to share a bit of the risk, the cost, the fallout?

But no, seemingly everything is going swimmingly in Noonan Land, because earlier this month he said we didn't need any deals on debt, because we're in a "pretty good place now".

Which will come as news to the hundreds of thousands of people in the country in mortgage distress - particularly if their mortgages have been sold on to vulture funds at cheap prices not offered to them - terrified to answer their doors in case it's the bailiff with a crowd of hooded men and a few gardai backing them up.

It will also come as news to people like Fr Peter McVerry, whose Trust last Friday appealed to the Government to do more for people at risk of becoming homeless and particularly the dangers that the vulture funds bring with them.

Michael Noonan is a fan, seemingly. Of vulture funds. I know, that's hard to believe, but then some people have hard necks. They can afford to.

Fine Gael TD Catherine Byrne got terribly upset when David Hall, of Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO), called Mr Noonan a "vulture [fund] lover" at an Oireachtas Housing and Homelessness committee meeting recently.

After a "face-to-face" meeting with the minister, Hall said: "He was very clear about his love for vultures. We had a very robust exchange in relation to it ... the self-confessed predators. They circulate for five years, they suck an asset dry and they move on."

Last week Ulster Bank announced that it would be selling over 2,900 of its customers' mortgages to "vulture funds".

Of those, 900 are family homes, the others, one presumes, are rental properties. (Most evictions in Ireland actually arise when people can't pay escalating rents, as opposed to mortgages.)

According to the recent report by the Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) our Government "wholeheartedly embraced vulture funds", which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about their attitude to Joe or Josephine mortgage problems. Or families like my friend Danielle's, who have just been given a few months to leave the home they have rented for 10 years.

Their landlord is sorry, but the mortgage has been sold on to vulture funds and all he can do is commiserate and say that they were exemplary tenants.

Like many other families in similar situations, they haven't a hope of finding affordable accommodation near their jobs and children's schools.

An EU-wide report headed up by NUIG academic Padraig McKenna also found that "there were relatively high numbers of evictions (including illegal evictions) in the [Irish] private rented sector". According to the DDCI report, "the arrival of vulture funds means an increased likelihood of people being evicted from their homes".

Well, "duh" as my kids would say; it shouldn't take an academic report to deduce that.

The people evicted will probably end up in hotels at the State's expense - but hey, the vulture funds and Minister Noonan is happy - so that's all right so.

Groups like the Anti-Eviction Taskforce look set to have their work cut out for them in the immediate future.

Welcome to the "new politics", and old-style land repossessions.