Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I commend the Minister and his staff on their enduring work in the arduous process of getting to this point.

I am reassured that Deputy Mathews is doing constituency work. I, too, every week meet people coming into our offices. These are genuine ordinary persons who did not make a fortune, who did not go berserk but who now are in trouble. They are living in fear.

Deputy Mathews used the word "slavery". There is a new modern form of slavery in society which is called personal debt. That is having a profound effect on the quality of life of ordinary citizens. It has a significant impact on the social and economic life and the mental health of the nation.

I hope this Bill is the beginning of the journey to reclaiming the country and allowing people to be able to live without fear. There are so many today who are afraid to go home because they are unemployed, they have debt or they are bankrupt. They are afraid to talk to their wives. That is the impact on the quality of life.

Deputy Mathews is correct. I pointed out in the House previously that the banks are telling us lies. They are codding us up to our eyeballs. They come out with these great advertisements on television and radio, they bring us into briefings and they meet us to tell us all they are doing and all the money they are giving out, but they are making it impossible to work with people. The banks must recognise that we require people to spend money to do up their houses and to buy houses and small and medium-sized enterprises to be able to employ and act as a stimulus in local economies. Unless we wake up to the reality in this country, we are heading towards a continuation of the spiral of insolvency and debt.

I very much welcome the debate on this Bill. In many ways, it is the statue to 14 years of the boom and bloom of which former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, et al told us. This is the legacy they leave. This is their monument to where we were under their false voodoo economic carry-on. That is why it is important that we move forward with this piece of legislation and others in a suite of measures that will assist citizens.

We need resolution strategies. We need, with the Central Bank and the other banks, to ensure there is a strategy to assist those who are in mortgage arrears. It is imperative; it is critical. Equally, we must recognise that this will take time. This cannot be done in the space of a five hour debate or in the passing of the Bill.

The Personal Insolvency Bill will, I hope, act as a catalyst to the banks to work with individual borrowers in resolving mortgage arrears cases. The protection of the family home is the person's priority.

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