Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I blush to think Aviva workers might be looking to us with hope that we might rescue their jobs. On a different issue, is the Taoiseach ashamed to stand in the Dáil the morning after his Minister for Finance crushed the hopes of 300,000 mortgage holders? These mortgage holders, the majority of whom are ordinary people with partners and families, are swamped by negative equity and monthly mortgage payments that devour the bulk of their incomes. The Minister merely regurgitated the Keane report, a banker's charter written by bankers.

The Government's attitude to the victims of ruthless blackmail by property speculators and bankers has been insulting and begrudging. It constantly implies that an army of borrowers are waiting to cheat on their mortgages in order to excuse its inaction. Simply by an accident of birth dates, an entire generation is in mortgage bondage to the banks but the Government does not want to know. The Taoiseach knows about the man who fell among thieves while travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was left dazed and badly beaten by the side of the road. The first passersby to come along were a priest and a Levite, who diverted their gaze and no doubt murmured to themselves that he must have done something to deserve it. That is the Government's response to the victims of the bankers and the developers.

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