Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to begin by putting this debate in context. It is worth comparing the outcomes of the crisis in this country and the crisis in Cyprus. Ordinary people in Cyprus have gone out to fight against the troika's disgraceful plans to raid their savings. They have forced the troika and the Cypriot Government to accept that bondholders should be burned and that people below a certain level should not be touched. This is in sharp contrast with what is happening in this country. Our Government's only red line seems to be the protection of bondholders and the very rich. It has chosen to unload all of the cost, the pressure and the suffering onto the shoulders of ordinary people. I refer to the introduction of property taxes, for example. In the area we are discussing, the Government is giving the banks the right to harass and intimidate mortgage holders who are in distress almost entirely through no fault of their own. They are distressed because of the reckless behaviour of the banks, particularly between 2000 and 2008 approximately. There seems to be no recognition in the Government's attitude to this issue that the primary blame lies with the banks. It does not accept that the banks should take the hit for the property bubble and for the massive debts that are around the necks of distressed mortgage holders. As a result, some 180,000 families are suffering immensely and our economy is being suffocated. It is utterly outrageous that the Minister is talking about taking people's second cars from them, telling them they cannot go on holidays and policing what they can spend money on. It is indicative of the utter failure of the Government to address the real issue, which is the suffering that ordinary people are enduring. I have to say Fianna Fáil's motion does not go half far enough in countering this. It is still leaving the door open to the repossession of family homes and the policing of people's spending.

There is a simple answer to this. First, there should be a write down of these mortgages to current market levels, where they should be, and, second, the repayments people are asked to pay should be no more than 30% or 35% of their income. That is it. There should be no further questions about how they spend their money or on what they spend it. That is outrageous.

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