Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

When Lehman Brothers went to the wall and the Government decided in an emergency meeting last year - behind closed doors, of course, which is where the banks always did their business - to bail out the banks to the tune of €11.5 billion, for which people in this country had worked hard and for which we are now borrowing, we thought that the world had changed. As we quickly found out, however, the old order is still intact.

The old order is the little golden circle that always existed in this country, and still exists. The banks gave the developers the money to buy fields and build houses. The developers then put the houses on the market and the banks gave the people the money to buy the houses. The house prices were vastly inflated because the banks did not care. If the developer did not sell the houses, the banks did not get repaid and, therefore, the banks had to give to the people as well. It went around and around, repeatedly, in such a circle until there were people paying twice, sometimes three times, what the house was worth. We are in a position where the same banks who caused this bubble have collapsed and the same taxpayers, who have been fleeced in buying the houses, now must bail out the banks. Those very banks are threatening to put those people out of their homes, for which they paid too much in the first place and for which they cannot now pay. That is incredible. It is incredible that there are not mobs at the gates of this place to tear down the old order. They will, eventually, tear down the old order because they will eventually realise the awful injustice that has been done to them.

I would ask people to think seriously about those who have lost their jobs and have mortgages of anything up to €1,600 a month to whom the Department of Social and Family Affairs states they must renegotiate the loan. I hear all the backbenchers in here tonight, from the Green Party to Fianna Fáil, speak of sympathy. They can have all the sympathy they like. What these people need is help, and they need it immediately. The type of resolution that the Labour Party has put forward is the kind of help and security they need. Come this Christmas they will be worried, not just about putting food on the table but about keeping the roof over their heads.

I ask Deputies to close their eyes and imagine themselves, with two small children, unable to find that €1,600 this time next month. You may decide that all you will pay is the interest and that you will extend the loan to 35 years. You spread it out to 35 years and now you are paying interest only, which amounts to €1,100 a month. Now the bank has decided to move in on you. The same bank that has caused this to happen is now being subsidised by the State, again, through mortgage interest relief. Here, again, with mortgage interest relief, is another way of transferring the taxpayers' money back into the banks. Most of these people will be almost 65 by the time these mortgages are paid. Have we thought about the consequences of that? They will probably have retired and still be paying a mortgage.

Say you lose your home and you must go into private rented accommodation, from whom do you rent a house?

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