Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When the Dáil resumed this week, many journalists and commentators asked us what dominant theme we expect to engage with this term. We all said the mortgage arrears crisis stands out, along with the budget, the Seanad referendum, Dáil reform and the preparation for local and European elections on the part of our respective political parties. They are all intertwined with and underpinned by the mortgage arrears situation. It is the major, pivotal and most pertinent issue. The success or failure in dealing with it has an undoubted domino effect on all the other areas mentioned.

An example of that is education, discussed during Leaders' Questions earlier this morning. When I, and others, spoke to our constituents over the summer and previously, one thing was very striking. People are experiencing not only fears about the financial situation caused by the mortgage issue but about their ability as parents to pay for and educate their children, whether at primary, secondary or third level. From speaking to students and the work force we know a primary degree in the present situation is, in many cases, no longer sufficient to enter the work force. A masters degree is the goal of many students and the costs associated with that are excessive. The Government's cuts in all areas of education, not to mention the issues raised this morning, lead us to believe that education and areas such as mental health must be ring-fenced in the budget. This will be in our document.

Deputy Neville mentioned, as he has done on many occasions, the effect this crisis is having on the mental health of individuals and society in general, and similar comments have emanated from many other members of the Government. That, coming from a member of the Government, must reinforce the intention of the Minister for Finance and the Government to ring fence funding in that sector to protect the most vulnerable.

The question of housing is causing great grief and consternation among our constituents. If one were to carry out a survey of all Deputies one would find that there has been an obvious upsurge in representations on housing as people seek replacement homes. The conventional methods of dealing with this are practically defunct. There have been no innovations, new initiatives or new thinking by the Government and those charged with responsibility in this area. That is very obvious when one hears people saying there are local authority housing units idle in estates in my county and in many others. Yet local authorities lack the funding and resource capabilities to make those houses suitable for people to take hold of. Does that not say the Government must find ways of generating funding to address these issues?

Earlier Deputy Healy-Rae and others mentioned the need for a new tenant-purchase scheme to allow those who might be able to afford it to take advantage of the fallen prices and give much-needed business in the financial sector that is affordable, real and can have a positive effect on the demands of society in that area, but to no avail. The Government could also examine ways contracts could be innovative in a way which would allow incoming tenants the option of making those houses suitable for their use because allowing houses to lie idle helps nobody and efforts must be made in that regard.

Another issue that will form much of the debate inside and outside the House in the coming weeks, and which we have been discussing, is the Seanad referendum. The Taoiseach charged the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton with the responsibility for fighting that campaign. Where would you get it? How crazy is it to think that at a time when the needs in that sector are so great, combined with the needs of the education sector, the Taoiseach has sacrificed that Minister to fight a referendum campaign to abolish the Seanad?

Of course, he is fighting a referendum on a pet project that the Taoiseach initiated in 2009. The Taoiseach will win in any event because it will be his victory if the referendum is carried and the poor Minister, Deputy Bruton, will be blamed if it is defeated. I am reminded of Deputy Charles Flanagan's predicament during the Presidential election. There is a common thread.

A reformed Seanad might have been in a better position to critically analyse the insolvency legislation recently passed by this House. As was made evident during the passage of the legislation on the property tax, the cuts to child benefit and the other attacks on the most vulnerable, it is the norm for this Government and its massive majority. The ESRI's independent assessment found that the last two budgets were far more regressive than the last budget introduced by the Fianna Fáil-led Government, which took twice as much out of the economy. The Taoiseach pointed out yesterday that the Government does not engage in debate. Its own way is the only way in town. If Carlsberg did autocratic government, it would do it the Fine Gael and Labour Party way. It is not Frankfurt's way or anybody else's way.

The Opposition may be proved right next May or June. The Government may then appoint an independent mortgage resolution office which can inform the Government about what is as plain as the nose on my face, namely, the failure of any insolvency regime that offers a veto for the banks. That may benefit Opposition parties or condemn the Government to a disastrous electoral defeat, but our success would be at the expense of distressed families in every town, village and city on this island. That is a legacy none of us want, least of all the Government. The Taoiseach continues to high-five around the country in his happy-clappy way. It is incumbent on Government backbenchers to get the economic council into a room and make it watch a rerun of the proceedings of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform earlier this month. Perhaps it might then see sense and begin to hold the banks to account or establish an independent mortgage resolution office. We might finally get a clear understanding of what a sustainable resolution would comprise. Sustainable resolutions might involve split mortgages, reduced interest rates or debt for equity swaps. A sustainable resolution is not represented by a bank issuing proceedings to take the house from someone who cannot afford to pay his or her mortgage.

The Government has a responsibility to get to grips with this situation. It gave out about light-touch regulation and the bank guarantee for long enough. It now has an opportunity to address the issue. In regard to the political charges made against us today and in the past, it has put in place a politically charged inquiry. Members of my party, whether current or past, will meet our responsibilities in that regard and answer all the questions we are asked, notwithstanding the benefits the Government hopes to gain coming into the election. Apart from the political game it continues to play, it has an obligation to meet the most pressing demand put on it by the Irish electorate - that is, the mortgage situation.

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