Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Sibley used the example of a retail worker. I will concede there might be retail workers and their families for whom the best solution is not a payment break, but there are many other workers who will be badly affected in the course of the next weeks and months for whom a payment break is precisely what they need. The point, however, is they do not have a right to that. It is not something they can ask for as their right. It is a case they can put to their bank manager, but the bank manager has the power to make the decision and to say "No". There is no point in saying there is a blanket ban if, in some cases, bank managers will say "No".

Given that tens of thousands of cases are coming down the line, that means there will be a high volume of people for whom the best choice for them and their family, not for the bank, is a payment break, but they will be denied it. They will be because, let us be blunt, the Central Bank is not supporting it, the banks are not supporting it and the Government is not pushing for it. That is a betrayal of those working families. Is it not the case that people who need it will be refused? Mr. Sibley cannot deny that is the case.