Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am coming to it. The Government is cutting the payment to people in receipt of jobseeker's benefit under the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012. I am shocked that the Government has picked on people in receipt of mortgage interest supplement. It proposes to implement legislation today to give the banks and financial institutions a veto, which they never had before, in regard to people applying for mortgage interest supplement. The Government is placing legal restrictions on those people and it is doing nothing to the banks. Will the Tánaiste please explain why the Government is making these changes today?

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