Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

On No. 12a, we are not prepared to accept any arrangements for the Order of Business today unless the Minister for Finance makes an arrangement to come into the House and clarify the absolute dog's breakfast that has been made of the withdrawal of mortgage interest relief from about 60,000 home owners. People are facing a weekend where they are not sure what their net mortgage payments are going to be from next month onwards. We are told that this was the most prepared budget in the history of the State and that Cabinet Ministers met no less than ten times to work out the detail of the budget, yet they have left an extraordinary trail of confusion. Tomorrow is May Day and it will be marked in many households by the beginning of the Minister for Finance's draconian regime where people do not know what is happening to them. Tomorrow is also pay day for Mr. Fingleton who is collecting a €27 million bonus, of which one quarter will be tax free.

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