Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputy Anne Ferris. I would have preferred more time to read the report. Some material in the report is rather technical and it would be good for Deputies and Senators to receive a presentation by the authors of the report at some stage to outline the various measures. Now that the report is out, anything that is non-contentious and straightforward should be implemented as soon as possible. A strong awareness programme should be arranged. It need not be an expensive public relations campaign but it could use press conferences, leafleting or whatever is available to get the message out about the measures and to let people know that a range of measures are available to help. There is some confusion about whether anything is available to help people in difficulty with their mortgage. There is also confusion about who might need help. It was apparent on the "The Frontline" programme that there is a merging of people who may have speculated on property on the one hand and those who are in negative equity on the other. There should be a strong awareness programme to explain the problems to people and to explain the solutions to address these problems.

Many of the relevant NGOs are well-intentioned but they are also jockeying for position in terms of who has the monopoly of wisdom on the issue. No one has a monopoly of wisdom on what should be done to address the problems. There should be consultation with the groups that have expressed views on the process and which have been critical of the Keane report but none of these groups has a monopoly on wisdom. A great deal of experience is available, including from public representatives who have worked as councillors and know about the availability of schemes such as the shared ownership scheme and whether they worked.

The Keane report stated that mortgage interest relief was a State subsidy to the banks. A reply to a parliamentary question asked of the Minister recently stated that some €77.2 million was allocated to mortgage interest supplement in 2011. That represents one funding stream. Tax relief also applies on mortgage interest and the cost to date in 2011 for that relief is €400 million. These subsidies are in place as well as the bank recapitalisation.

Recently, I asked the Minister about the Bank of Ireland's outsourcing of biometric software development to a company in India called HCL Technologies. The Minister's reply was critical but he suggested there was not much he could do about it and that the banks should be kept at arm's distance from the Government and the Oireachtas. I do not agree. There should be independence in the way the banks operate but there is considerable and ongoing State investment in the banks. If the Bank of Ireland is outsourcing to companies in India, it should be made to invest in companies here in the software development area or to train its staff in software development or, for example, it could get involved in set-up companies in partnership with the universities. Of all the sectors, Ireland has great potential in software development. I realise this is somewhat off-topic but the banks should be made to do certain things having received such an amount of State funding.

One element missing from the report is any mention of a scheme such as the shared ownership scheme and this surprised me. We are all aware that there were problems with the shared ownership scheme but something like it could be developed as part of the solution for those who have problems at the moment. We should return to old-fashioned council housing. On the one hand we appear to suggest to people that they should not expect to buy houses but on the other hand we appear to move away from traditional social housing in our local authorities. This has been a bad move and it has contributed to our property boom and collapse because not enough social housing has been built. In reality, affordable housing was simply a prop for the market. We should return to these things. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, has made criticisms and points about the proposals which should be taken on board.

See this speech in context