Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this very serious topic. It is a problem that has been with us for quite a while. I wrote extensively on this issue in February 2010. My aim at the time was to promote parked-percentage mortgages, whereby banks would split the debt into an affordable, sustainable amount for the distressed mortgage holder. This was fed into the Keane report, along with the contributions of many others, and came out as a proposal for split or parked mortgages. I met with all of the main banks on this issue, along with many other Deputies, and we spoke with them at length, expressing our genuine concerns about this. As everybody knows, the banks at that time were reluctant to move into this area. It was unknown territory for them. I do not think they actually had the skills to deal with the problem. As someone who has been involved in business for almost 20 years, I saw it as simply a matter of fact that a problem like this cannot be ignored.

Progress has taken time. As with anything that is new ground, it cannot be perfect straight away. People are demanding instant solutions but it cannot happen that way. At the start of this process, mistakes were made but things will improve as we go along. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan pointed out that many people were asserting that we would never get out of the mess we were in. When Fine Gael went into government, there was only funding for six months and then the country was going to fall over the edge of a financial cliff ---

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