Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All of us who are in politics are more than aware of the enormous pressures people are under when they come into our offices. Saying on the floor of Dáil Éireann that repossessions will be back in spades before Christmas is reckless. People are under enough pressure without that sort of emotive scaremongering. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Justice and Equality and many others, including Professor Patrick Honohan and the banks themselves, have all said the very last resort will be repossessions. I urge that speakers bear in mind the enormous pressure people are under.

We have to acknowledge the reason we are here this evening is the economic destruction that has fallen over the country. Even by Fianna Fáil standards of cynicism, this is truly remarkable. An hour and a quarter before polls close in Meath, we can now say that this was an extremely cynical attempt to link a Seanad candidate to a by-election and recreate him as some sort of a property owners guru to try to secure a victory in that by-election. It will be seen for the cynical attempt it is.

House prices in this country were artificially promoted by those in Fianna Fáil. Their cosy relationship with developers, their belief that house prices would only go up, and how they convinced the country of that, not to mention the obliteration of 250,000 jobs, are the reasons all of us are here now trying to sort out this problem. This legislation includes a measure to create an independent body which exists nowhere else in the world. I know Deputy McGrath might say we should be the first country in the world to have it-----

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