Seán Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

Yes, it is absolutely impossible. I am suggesting a system should be put in place which would not only set the economy right, with the credit system, an increased number of training places and job creation, but would also look after those who by necessity are suffering the greatest problems as a result of the adverse effects of what is happening. When I go knocking on doors, I note that the ones who are most vulnerable are those who have lost their jobs and have large mortgages. I have huge sympathy for their predicament but sympathy is not enough; we must put a system in place. When the Land League was first established in Castlebar in 1879, it had as its aims the three Fs - fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure. We must ensure security of tenure for those who are in danger of losing their homes. I ask the Minister to consider bringing forward an amendment to the Bill to ensure persons with a mortgage would have an entitlement to have their mortgage repayments reduced to interest-only payments at the ECB marginal lending facility rate of 1.75%.

On the question of whether the Government is making the right choices and going in the right direction, I refer Members to a very interesting article by Colm McCarthy in which he refers to our nostalgia for things as they were in 2007. It is a short, sharp article published on www.irisheconomy.ie. It reads:

In three or four years time, if we are lucky, we will have an economy which needs to look very different from 2007, the final year of the first credit-fuelled bubble in the State's history. It should look like this: (i) Government debt ratios stabilised and sovereign credit spreads back to low levels; (ii) competing banks strong enough to lend (a little); (iii) a competitive economy producing more exports, less houses, and (iv) a smaller and less leveraged balance sheet. This economy will inevitably be smaller than 07 for a while, have lower employment, a smaller construction sector, smaller aggregate bank balance sheet, bigger Exchequer debt, lower public spending, higher tax rates and possibly BOP surplusses for a few years.

Mr. McCarthy has described a scenario which we have to achieve and the sooner, the better, but it will be very difficult to do so. He further states:

All policy wheezes emanating from the commentariat over the next few months should be smell-tested for 07 Nostalgia, and rejected at the merest whiff. We have been there and it didn't work.

When discussion of the Bill resumes, I will show that Fine Fail's - rather Fine Gael's -"Enronomics" have not been smell-tested, amount to nostalgia and are not suitable for the future.

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