Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I spoke to the Minister for Finance in a general way about this issue. I also spoke to Mr. Hugh Cooney about it. It is important that the benefit of the mortgage interest supplement is to the mortgage holder. Many parties have a part to play in resolving this; the banks lent the money and in some cases they did less than their homework before doing so. We have all come across such cases. l have noted the Deputy's remarks about the uniform application of the scheme and it is important, as far as possible, that there is uniform applications of the rules. Different referees interpret the rules differently, however, and no matter how rules are codified, different interpretations are possible. I will discuss this further with my officials to see if there are any further ways to ensure that.

Without pre-empting the report, the beginning of resolution to a person's debt problems, if he is in serious difficulty and his problems cannot be resolved by meeting with the bank, must be a meeting with MABS to work out the total financial situation independently. Otherwise the situation the Deputy mentions arises.

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