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

Simply reducing the interest rate will not work for a customer who is in difficulty with arrears. My fear concerns young families in a certain age bracket who are offered a restructured mortgage arrangement. By the time their children start third level education they will be barely hanging on and will be unable to afford to pay the costs of putting their children through college. I am afraid this will result in another dramatic event. I discussed this issue with representatives of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service who expressed considerable concern that many people will encounter serious problems with third level education because they are barely hanging on under the current arrangements.