Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow we will begin to discuss the family home or household tax again. We have already seen the start of the water charges legislation in the House. It was stated earlier in the House that €30 billion of austerity measures have been imposed on the people. Yet perhaps the greatest crisis we are in the middle of - a singular crisis which the Government has not acknowledged - is the crisis of those with mortgages in distress or default. I cannot say it often enough: one in four people are in mortgage distress and 115 additional people fall into that category every day.

The Minister stated that setting rates was a commercial matter for the institution and I understand that. However, it has always been a commercial matter for the institutions but that has not stopped the Minister for Finance, his colleagues and the Taoiseach in the past from banging their fists on the table and demanding that the banks deal with interest rates. That was immediately after they got into government. Why is there a different approach now?

AIB, while not announcing a rate change, has signalled that it plans to increase the rate. Let us be clear: this bank got billions of euro of Irish taxpayers' money. If AIB increases the variable interest rate by 0.25%, it will be the highest lender in the market in terms of interest charged. It is a bank that has increased its interest rate twice in the last quarter of 2012, with two increases of 0.25%. The bank is turning the screw on ordinary people, who are concerned about being unable to pay their mortgages at this stage.

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