Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This strategy has nothing to do with the by-election. Deputy Martin has pursued a misery agenda for long enough. I am not sure whether he is afraid he would actually sort this out, because when one looks back at what the previous Government did not do, one can see appalling behaviour and lack of competence on its part. Deputy Martin ignores the fact that the Government of which he was a central member was directly responsible for the infliction of economic burdens on every person in the country because of the way it allowed the banking system to run riot. People could not go to an ATM without getting notices that they had been approved for another €10,000, €15,000 or €50,000. This Government had to restructure and recapitalise the banks, change the boards and make a series of arrangements, including the introduction of the Personal Insolvency Act, which is not yet operational because the personal insolvency service will open its doors in early summer. There will be an announcement about that from the director, who has already been appointed and will be recruiting his staff towards the end of March.

The Minister for Finance will set out all the details of the mortgage targets and timeframes today and there will be similar announcements by the Central Bank. As Deputy Martin knows, the Central Bank controls the licences and can apply any conditions it sees fit to banks that do not adhere to conditions or rearrangements for persons in distress. I told Deputy Martin yesterday that we want to see an opportunity for those 100,000 people who exist for the banks and for their families to have some sense of security for the future. The Government aimed to bring about a variety of opportunities, which now exist, for restructuring and establishing different arrangements for those clients. The details of that will be presented by the Minister for Finance today. It is not true for Deputy Martin to say that the Government has shown inaction on this. For the past two years, this has been one of the central issues for it. That is why we had the Keane report and why some of its recommendations have been followed through, although others have not been followed through to the extent that we would like. The Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning has been very active in respect of mortgage-to-rent and split mortgage arrangements.

Far from Deputy Micheál Martin's argument that there has been no activity on the part of the Government, the scale of the mess his party left behind was absolutely unprecedented in the history of the country.

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