Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom an cheist chéanna a chur agus cúpla moladh a dhéanamh. Déanann daoine teagmháil le mo oifig gach seachtain. Tá a fhios ag an Taoiseach go bhfuil daoine ag dul i dteagmháil le gach Teachta sa tslí sin. Tá daoine i bponc de bharr fadhbanna lena morgáistí. Níl cuid acu in ann a morgáistí a íoc. Yesterday, as we heard about and read, Fiona Muldoon sharply criticised the banks for failing to deal with indebted homeowners. John Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance, has also called for the banking sector to resolve all the arrears situations. Depending on who one listens to, there are 129,000 families in mortgage distress. The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012, which is the Government's one contribution to this issue, apparently will not be operational until next year and gives the banks a veto over debt write-downs.

When the banks were in crisis, the Government and the previous Government gave them €64 billion. When citizens are in crisis, the Government stands off and does nothing. Variable rate mortgage holders in banks which have received billions of taxpayers' money are paying well above the ECB interest rate and, again, the Government has done nothing about that. I have a number of suggestions for the Taoiseach in terms of actions the Government could take in helping citizens deal with this serious mortgage distress. The first is to bring forward legislation to cap mortgage interest rates, the second is to remove the banks' veto from the Personal Insolvency Bill, the third is to ensure that Ulster Bank passes on additional mortgage interest relief to those in negative equity and the fourth is for the Taoiseach to make a commitment that those in negative equity will not be subject to the property tax. Will he announce these steps today?

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