Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

I commend Deputy Pringle on putting this motion before the House. I expected it to receive more support because after canvassing my constituency I believed there was a problem. However, according to the Government speakers yesterday, it is only a minor problem. What harm is it if one ends up in court and one's house is not taken? One is standing in the court with one's children, in front of reporters from one's local newspaper and potentially going to lose one's house, but the attitude is that one might not lose it and it is not that bad after all. If one loses one's house, it will be hell and if one must worry about losing one's house, it will also be hell. It will slow the person down, make them less beneficial to society and will do nobody any good. It will cause more rows and stress in the home and more psychological problems, but the reaction is: "What harm is it when some might not actually lose the house? They will only be dragged through the courts."

I often said in the last few weeks that I could not understand who is and is not a socialist, but at this stage I know who is not a socialist. The Members on the other side of the House are not socialist. One does not talk about there being some type of moral hazard in an individual defaulting on their debt while simultaneously believing there is no problem with a bank offering money to people it knows could never repay it if anything went wrong. Deputy Wallace gave an interesting insight last night into the potential percentage of people who might have to default on their mortgages. We cannot be sure this will be the case but it is an interesting indicator.

The Irish League of Credit Unions, however, gave a more interesting and strong hint of what is coming down the line. It said that 21% of people in this country, or 735,000, have €70 per month after they pay for everything. Will they be all right in the next couple of years after they pay the new water charges that will be introduced and the new housing tax to be imposed on us by our friends in Europe and the IMF? Our friends in Europe are also talking about increasing interest rates by 1% or, in their language, 100 basis points. That is only another €1,000 gone from one's income. If one lives in a rural area, there will be a septic tank tax which, presumably, will not be a problem. One will be able to pay that, as well as the insurance levy.

The Tuam Herald today reports that a new EU directive is due to be introduced, which we will swallow hook, line and sinker because the EU runs this country. Apparently, the EU will force farmers to pay the same rate of tax on agricultural diesel as is paid on motoring diesel. This means they will have even less money. Yet, with all this and, perhaps, many other things we do not yet know about coming down the line, the Government is saying it will not be a problem.

As somebody who got a small mortgage to buy a relatively small house, part of me is uncomfortable with the fact that I might be paying for somebody who bought a big house. Perhaps they should have been smarter and not done that. The reality, however, is that we do not have a choice. We either deal with it now or later when, like the banking debt, it will fall on us like a tonne of bricks. We will have to deal with it one way or the other.

I heard somebody say yesterday that it would require further recapitalisation. I understood a stress test had been carried out on the banks. One does not need to be a mathematical genius to understand that if one is carrying out a stress test on the banks, one should take account of the fact that people might default on their mortgages. In fact, it is almost definite that the latter will happen. Therefore, in stress testing the banks, one should include recapitalising them in respect of the potential losses to which I refer. Obviously, however, the Government did not believe that this was going to happen or that it was a worst case scenario.

When one considers the Government amendment to the motion, it becomes clear who, along with the EU, is running the country. It is being run by civil servants. I am convinced that the individual who drafted the amendment is the same one who used to draft amendments for the previous Minister for Finance. Apparently, the difficulties in which we find ourselves are not the fault of Fianna Fáil or the previous Government of which it was a part. Our problems are due, it seems, to the worldwide financial crisis. It did not take those opposite long to turn into the same beasts - and they were beasts - as those who served in government before them. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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