Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. As he said, there are 186,000 borrowers on tracker mortgages, 129,000 on standard variable rates and more than 113,000 with non-banks and vulture funds. Some borrowers are being affected very dramatically and very immediately with these five hikes so far and with more to come. I do not believe the Government should hesitate on this matter.

The reality, as we know, is that families and workers were struggling anyhow with a cost-of-living crisis. For lots of families, this has now, as they say, put the tin hat on things for them. We need to see Government intervention. I appeal to the Taoiseach not only to support our proposal and our motion this evening, but also to include targeted, time-bound mortgage interest relief as the package of measures that needs to be introduced now.

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