Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I, too, welcome the opportunity to record my views on the Keane report. I do not have any hang-up about the composition of the committee referred to by the previous speaker. It is a pity some people have a hang-up about that because it was the bankers, in the main, who got us into this mess and their expertise, if they have any left, should be sought out. They have a role to play in that regard.

I hope the Keane report will not be another report left on the shelf. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Noonan, on setting up the working group and on the membership he chose. I welcome the timely publication of the report and it is important that we discuss it.

It was welcome to hear Government speakers say that any final decisions will be debated in legislation here and voted by Members of this House. That is important because like previous speakers I do not want to cause a scintilla of additional concern or anguish to the parents, siblings and children of the families affected for whom this problem has become a nightmare. We are aware that over 70,000 family units are experiencing serious problems. That is a tragedy coming off the back of the Celtic tiger and the expectations created during that time when the flames were fanned by the media, the previous Government, most economists and everybody. Enormous pressure was put on anybody under 30 years of age who had never known stringent times. I have children of that age and they do not understand when we talk about the last recession and learning from our past mistakes but we have learned nothing from previous mistakes. Accountants, solicitors, auctioneers and so on got busy and it was a case of buy the house today or it will increase by €10,000 tomorrow. New catch words are being used such as moral hazard and people not deserving something but after we have cherry-picked parts from this report we must ensure that no family home will be taken away. The primary family residence must not be taken from the family.

An aspect of the Keane report with which I do not agree is that the bankers have got out under the wire again. The banking system practically forced the money on people, although I accept they signed for their mortgages but when applying for the mortgage they added in the cost of a holiday, an SUV or whatever. It was all done on a commission basis for the people behind the counter. Many thousands of good, decent people work in the banking industry but the senior and junior managers were zealous to get extra profit for themselves. The problem was greed, which is a horrible word. Those people should not be let slip under the radar again.

The Central Bank or the regulator must get an accurate figure in terms of the full extent of this problem and deal with it. Blanket debt forgiveness is not a realistic option because I refer primarily to the family home. I am not talking about people my age or younger who have 20 houses at this stage. The word "greed" comes to mind again because those people fanned the flames of the market but the ordinary couple who wanted to get married, settle down and purchase their own house did not have a hope. I do not know how the people who bought all the houses thought they would maintain that. We all know people who had enough to maintain one or two but I am not talking about those people. They have to deal with those problems and it has created a problem in their own personal situations but that is another day's work. They were small, medium and big speculators but I am talking primarily about the family home.

Some of the solutions put forward in this document are unrealistic. I have no problem with anyone in a county council house but I have a problem where it affects a family who have been paying their mortgage for 15 or 20 years. I do not know where the county council will get the funds to take back the houses and rent them. That is not fair because the bank will win again. The taxpayers and the home owners are carrying the can.

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