Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

In directing the debate in the coming days, will the Minister state that the majority of people with distressed mortgages are victims of a problem that was created by bankers? They do not have an obligation to pay back inflated debts which resulted from the gross distortion of the property market by bankers' reckless lending and developers' irresponsible behaviour. Does he agree that is the correct starting point? Will he state that the burden which built up during the property bubble should be removed from the backs of people who bear no responsibility for their unsustainable debt burdens?

The Minister claims we cannot afford to write down negative equity and unsustainable debt and that it is theoretical to suggest otherwise.

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