Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy does not add any validity to his point by engaging in rhetoric about inflaming markets and impending catastrophes. I accept there are difficulties in the mortgage sector. Of the more than 1 million mortgages in this country, some 930,000 are being dealt with as planned. Of the remaining 70,000, some 36,000 are in arrears. We have redesigned the mortgage interest relief scheme to assist those who bought at the top of the market. The mortgage interest subsidy scheme, which is providing financial help to over 17,700 families, will be continued until 2017 to assist those who bought when the market was at its height. A further 34,000 mortgage holders are rescheduling. That is in line with the processes which have been put in place and are now available across the banking sector to ensure people are dealt with appropriately. Various things can be done, depending on the circumstances, to help people to avoid going into further arrears. I refer to interest-only periods and interest holidays, for example. There is also an appeals process.

All parts of our approach are very important. The approach is consistently helping customers of all institutions that have provided mortgages to people on the ground in Ireland. It has been adopted in response to the fact that people value home ownership. We want to see people retain their homes where it is possible and viable for them to do so. I mentioned the level of repossessions in the second quarter of the year, which is an indication of the forbearance that has been shown and needs to be shown in this jurisdiction regarding the whole question of repossessing homes. That is the situation.

I could address some of the points the Deputy made up. There was no question of inflaming the property market.

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