Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

He also left behind a lot of people who are in mortgage distress and, as he said, he left behind the Cooney report. That report, as the Deputy knows and as we discovered, was not sufficient to deal with the mortgage difficulties people are facing. That is why the new Government asked the Keane group to bring forward a new set of recommendations as to what needed to be done to address the mortgage difficulties facing people. We brought the Keane report into this House to hear the words of wisdom from Deputy Ó Cuív and other Deputies who wanted to contribute on the issue and to offer either added solutions or alternative solutions. All of that is now being considered by the Government and we are bringing forward proposals that will be considered by Government within the next couple of weeks. They will include measures such as mortgage-to-rent schemes and work being done by the Minister for Justice and Equality in introducing a personal insolvency Bill, and they will bring forward a range of measures that will provide practical solutions to people who are in mortgage difficulty, all things the Fianna Fáil-Green Government failed to do over the period it was in office.

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