Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

All Deputies opposite and the Deputies on this side of the House, together with Deputy McGrath, urge that urgent action be taken in this instance. While the Keane report was put before the House for the subject of debate and for information purposes without the Government taking decisions, it was self-evident early in the debate that there was common ground on a number of issues and the Government began to proceed with those. First, there must be new bankruptcy and insolvency legislation. Second, there is merit in back-stop arrangements where somebody who is about to lose their house can enter into an arrangement where they can continue to live in that house. The Minister for housing has initiated a number of pilot schemes and made considerable progress on that. It is also common ground that circumstances differ between one household and another and that there must be a range of intervention instruments.

What we intend to do now, rather than hold up affairs, is proceed as I have indicated, take into account suggestions made by the Deputies opposite and many colleagues on the Government side, take an implementation strategy to Government at an early date and announce that, and then proceed to implement in line with the implementation strategy.

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