Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

-----the idea of having Irish pension funds invested in Irish sovereign bonds instead of invested at a much lower and inferior rate in German bonds. Since becoming Minister, Deputy Burton will have found that a great deal of the money in the banks derives from pensions, life insurance and bonds and that it was not as simple as was made out by the Government parties in the old days to burn bondholders.

On the matter of the mortgage interest supplement, will the Minister abolish the 30-hour rule? It is ridiculous that a person is disqualified from mortgage interest supplement purely on the basis that the person is one of a couple or an individual who works a number of hours even if the person's income and financial situation warrants the payment. Will the Minister say to the subprime lenders, to Permanent TSB and so on, that she will pay mortgage interest supplement on an interest only basis directly to them on behalf of the customer only if they charge or apply a low interest rate and that she will not be willing to pay it if inflated interest rates are charged. That would save her a great deal of money that she could use to good effect.

I would like to call a quorum.

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