Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Does Mr. Tobin accept the following? Article 43.2.1° states: "The State recognises, however, that the exercise of rights mentioned in the foregoing provisions of this Article ought, in civil society, to be regulated by the principles of social justice." Article 43.2.2° states: "The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good." There is a view of property rights in the Constitution. I do not think any of us has any problem with that. We want to see the exercise of balance. As the Department of Finance is tasked with the economic good of Ireland I reiterate that precariousness in a modern economy, not just in Ireland, is one of the features that would appear to be undermining democracies. Democracy is also an absolute value of the Constitution. I recognise that the Department of Finance's first brief is the economic. The Department also has a brief to consider what is happening to Irish society in terms of the common good. Does the Department have any suggestions to offer? The committee would love to hear how we can balance the rights, and reflect and endorse the rights of the individuals whose mortgages are being sold on and who feel even more precarious, as a consequence of reading in the newspaper and knowing from other media, that it is likely these particular funds may well sell on within a timespan of five to seven years. This is like the sub-prime stuff in the United States; when it was first talked about in Ireland people could not even believe that it would exist here.

We are, however, looking for a solution that would allow the Bill to give comfort to those affected in order that they would be less among the precariat.