Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with previous speakers. I do not believe anybody in this country is not aware of the huge mortgage arrears crisis that besets us all. It feeds into the difficulties that people have with public sector pay and the negotiations on public sector pay. The great majority of people in Ireland recognise there was a bubble which has simply burst and that what went before the bubble burst is no longer sustainable. People are quite happy, or if that is an exaggeration, people are willing to accept a reduction in their pay but for the fact they borrowed on the back of that pay, and they simply cannot now afford to pay a mortgage they took out in good faith. There are ordinary public sector workers - nurses, gardaí and teachers - right across this country who did not take out just one mortgage that they cannot pay but, in some instances, they took out two.

This Government is very clear about this. The last Government could not but have been clear about it either because, although the rate of mortgages which are now in arrears could be almost 20% at this stage, almost half of those mortgages were in arrears at the time of the last election, yet nothing was done.

I am not exactly happy with the pace at which this Government has dealt with this issue, but it has dealt with the issue. The personal insolvency service is about to open its doors and deal with the reality that besets ordinary people in this economy. On that basis, I find the timing of this motion somewhat strange. I wonder if it is more to do with electoral cycles than mortgage arrears. What has changed now from one month ago? The only thing that has changed is that the personal insolvency service is about to commence. I greatly welcome that and believe everybody, especially those who are beset by mortgages they cannot pay, would welcome that. While I sincerely hope it is not the case, I wonder whether this motion is motivated by a fear that the personal insolvency service might just work and that this country's progress can continue under a different Government to that which, while it did not cause the problem, certainly allowed this problem to fester to the extent it has.

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