Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and the fact Fianna Fáil tabled it and to engage in constructive dialogue on it, although clearly we will differ on certain elements of it. We must, however, enter a new era in Irish politics, although we will always remember the past. Fianna Fáil contributed to the position we are now in but although it is part of the problem, it can be part of the solution. We must show maturity in this House and maturity of purpose in how we sort out the magnitude and array of problems we have.

A man once asked me, "How does one eat an elephant?". I did not have the answer but his answer was that one eats it bit by bit. That is the way we must progress in trying to sort out this country. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic but in another 100 years, people will still argue about whose fault it was and about how the ship sank. It still will not change the fact that it sank. We must look at a new way of working in this House and the only way to do so is through constructive dialogue.

When we talk about lending and the obstacles faced by many small businesses in accessing credit, we must acknowledge the difficulties of so many people who have millstones around their necks and who must deal with the daily nightmare of negative equity and of not being able to move out of an apartment despite having young children who are growing up. They face major difficulties as their lives progress. A constituent of mine contacted me in the past week. While she and her husband are glad to have jobs, they still pay 40% of their monthly income on their mortgage. That is a nightmare scenario which the Cabinet is attempting to deal with. I congratulate the Taoiseach on heading up the Cabinet sub-committee to deal with mortgages and the level of restructuring going on. I understand that upwards of 74,000 mortgages have been restructured to date and more will need to be dealt with.

We must provide reassurances to the public and to so many people who wake up in the morning not knowing if they will own a house next month or not knowing if they will ever be able to pay back the millstone around their necks.

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