Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have set up a process. Anyone who has ever been involved in debt resolution - I am speaking as an accountant - will appreciate that it is necessary to get the borrower and the lender to come together to reach an agreement that allows the borrower to recover and get back on his or her feet and also allows the lender to recover proportionate amounts of money that are recoverable. If one examines the detail of the Central Bank code of conduct, one will find that it refers to contact that "is proportionate and not excessive". Anyone who has ever been owed money, even at a domestic level, will know that people who owe money get so stressed that they turn away and fail to engage. We are providing for an engagement process that will allow families to reach a sustainable solution. If Sinn Féin is holding out the prospect of anything else, or suggesting there should not be an actual resolution between the borrower and the lender, it is making a false promise that cannot be delivered on, even if it does not intend to do so. We must help families to sort out their difficulties, slowly but surely. The structures are now in place to facilitate this. The Department of Social Protection provides support for 12,000 families, in terms of their mortgage interest payments, on a monthly basis. It also provides a telephone advice line that is run through the Citizens Information Board and funds the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. The Government and the Dáil recently established the Insolvency Service of Ireland. We now have the structures in place to allow families to come to sustainable solutions. That is what I want for families. I hope it is what Sinn Féin wants also.

See this speech in context