Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said in my contribution this morning, the Government is focusing on those people who find themselves in these situations either through no fault of their own or at least very little fault on their part. I emphasised the figures at the beginning of my contribution and I will emphasise them again. These figures show the engagement and the agreements reached to date. A total of 59,668 agreements have been made which is an increase of just under 8,500 compared to the situation at the end of last year. The people for whom restructuring arrangements have not been agreed who bought properties at a time when neither the property market nor the banks were being regulated, made decisions in very good faith and with the best information available to them. We are doing our best to respond.

I will deal with the points made by various speakers.

Deputy Timmy Dooley highlighted the various things which could cause a further deterioration of the position on mortgages. It is worth pointing out that there are a number of factors which could materialise and improve the position in the context of what might happen in the real economy. Not least among them is people's ability to be paid more for the work they do.

Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly stated we focused on quantity as opposed to quality. If we had not set targets in the context of the response to the crisis, Opposition Deputies would be in a position to pose legitimate questions as to why we had not done so. The targets were set in order that we might respond to the crisis. If they are not met, sanctions can be imposed on the banks.

Deputy Seán Crowe was correct to point out that we were already experiencing huge difficulties in the provision of social housing. He also referred to the position on waiting lists, a matter of which I am aware. He made a further point - I am surprised others did not raise it - about the difficulties people were continuing to experience in identifying a single individual with their bank who had responsibility for dealing with them on an ongoing basis. Some banks are operating well in this regard, while others continue to fail to meet their obligations. This is a matter with which we must deal.

Deputy Peter Mathews made a number of comments to which I would love to be in a position to respond in detail.

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