Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has dealt with this on a number of occasions. I have just returned from briefing the European Parliament in Strasbourg in respect of the conclusion of Ireland's Presidency. In a situation where 26 million are unemployed across the EU, and with youth unemployment now reaching 60% in a number of countries, it goes without saying that other countries are facing really challenging difficulties.

The CSO figures mentioned by the Deputy are not consistent with the tax figures which will be produced later this afternoon. They will clearly show that the profile is on target - the budget having been predicated on a 1.3% growth rate - and that tax returns are actually ahead of profile. The difficulty with the figures that Deputy Martin mentioned is because of a fall in exports and the irregularity of the way that aircraft leasing, and the aviation business generally, works. Clearly, other countries are not in a position to be as strong in terms of their purchasing power as heretofore and this has affected Irish exports.

The indigenous economy is being stabilised. As I have often said before, in Ireland we lost 7,000 jobs a month for three years. That has been halted, however, and 2,000 jobs a month are now being created in the private sector. In that regard, it is disappointing that while these figures emerge they are not consistent with other figures that will be produced later this afternoon.

In respect of mortgages, the Deputy's own admission yesterday about his Government's failure to regulate banks was a central feature and contributory cause to the situation in which so many thousands of people now find themselves. The Government has put in place a range of actions to deal with mortgage arrears for people who are struggling to pay their mortgages. There has been a rebalancing between the rights of borrowers and lenders under the biggest shake-up in the personal insolvency laws in a century. We have given those who bought their first homes during the bubble period significant increases in mortgage interest relief.

All of the tools are in place to accelerate the work-out of the mortgage crisis. My understanding is that 25,000 offers have been made by banks to people who are in mortgage distress. Banks and borrowers need to use these tools to reach fair and sustainable solutions to mortgage arrears on a case-by-case basis. We cannot leave 100,000 families locked in this particular limbo.

In the first quarter of this year, 24,706 new restructural arrangements were agreed. Of those, 33% were interest only, 21% were reduced payment, 17% were term extension, 15% were arrears capitalisation, 8.9% were reduced payment, 3.1% were payment moratorium, 0.3% were permanent interest rate reduction, 0.2% were split mortgages, 0.2% were temporary interest rate reduction and 0.2% were deferred interest schemes.

These targets have been set as a consequence of the Government requiring the regulator to do this. The targets will accelerate the mortgage crisis work-out. Nobody wants to see this happening but it is a legacy of an unprecedented scale of problems that the Government has been working on for quite some time. The mechanics and tools are all there. We expect that the regulator, who is the licenser of the banks, will see to it that they live up to the targets and objectives that are set, and that people can have sustainable exits from the mortgage crisis in which they find themselves.

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