Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I, too, commend Deputy Lynch on bringing this motion before the House this evening. I concur with Deputy Penrose who expressed disappointment that the Minister is not present tonight.

The wording of the Government amendment to the motion indicates the priorities of Government as opposed to the priorities of the Labour Party. We are focused on the basic right of a person to have a home, to protect it and to remain in it in times of difficulty. The Government's response is in stark contrast to what happened when in the dark of night approximately a year ago the banks went to the Minister for Finance and told him of their troubles. All the guns were brought out blazing and €54 billion of taxpayers' money was put at risk. Everything was turned upside down to protect the banks. There is absolutely no sense, given the Government's amendment to the motion, of caring on the part of the Government about the plight of families who are losing their homes, and there are many of them.

I know of a family, a young husband and wife with two small children, who, when the husband lost his job owing to the downturn, had to walk away from their home and return to live with the wife's parents. We all know of such families. The contrast between the sense of urgency about the difficulties of the banks and the urgency of this matter is in the wording of the amendment which states:

the introduction of a blanket two year moratorium as proposed runs the substantial risk of creating unfavourable perceptions in credit markets about the future performance of a significant part of Irish bank lending and that such a perception could increase funding difficulties and raise funding costs for Irish banks with damaging consequences for all of their customers.

A caring Government should have as much concern for the lives of ordinary citizens of this country who are in difficulties as it has for the banks. The preamble of the Government's response is about putting things off and having no sense of urgency. The amendment also states that the issue of expanding mortgage support measures will be examined and that the renewed programme for Government envisages reform of debt enforcement.

The final sentence of the Government's amendment states:

expresses its confidence in the success of the Government's efforts to deal with the world wide financial crisis and its impact on Ireland.

The Government is delusional about the fact that there is a difference between cyclical and structural difficulties and in absolute and total denial of the part caused by mismanagement by Government during the past 12 months. I despair, when I read statements like that, at the ability of Government to care about the ordinary citizens of this country and their right to a home and a job, the type of issues of concern to the Labour Party.

The reason people are unable to repay their mortgages is that they were sold overpriced houses, given unsustainable loans, as outlined by Deputy Ciarán Lynch in detail, and they have lost their jobs-----

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