Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá an Rialtas seo ag teacht chun deiridh, agus deireadh fiáin atá ann. Tá sé ag titim ó ghéarchéim go géarchéim. An fáth go bhfuil sé faoi bhrú ná nach bhfuil sé ag tabhairt airde ar chor ar bith do mhuintir na tíre. Tá teip uafásach déanta mar gheall ar fhiachas na daoine agus fiachas gnóthaí thar timpeall na tíre. Tá sé sin i gcodarsnacht mhór leis an slí ina bhfuil an Rialtas ag plé le IBRC agus na gcomhlachtaí móra saibhre freisin.

When I first came into this Chamber, I said that if the Government continued on the path on which it had started, it would be the author of a lost decade, and that is what we seem to have. We are eight years into a disaster affecting tens of thousands of families. A home is very important. If a family does not have its own home that is warm, comfortable and safe, very little else will work for it. Education, health and mental health are determined according to one's ability to be in a safe, warm home. The fact that the Government has not made this a priority is a disgrace.

On my books at the moment are approximately 150 families in mortgage distress. One individual from County Meath had bought a house in Foxford to which he was going to move, but the collapse happened and the bank forcibly sold the house after just four months and €2,000 of arrears. On the basis of that, he was left with a debt of €80,000. I know a woman who has just gone through a separation. She has three kids and has an extreme bout of cancer at the moment, and she is also likely to lose her home. I know of a family which has just lost its home. They applied for emergency accommodation and were told they would have to wait seven weeks just to get onto the emergency accommodation process and then, maybe, get into a hotel room or a bed and breakfast. When they ask what they are to do they are told, "Find somewhere to live." They are not alone. There are hundreds of people going through this level of damage in my county on a daily basis and tens of thousands throughout the State. The worry I have is that the Government sees these individuals in a completely different light from the large benefactors of their political parties, against whom we hear allegations against in this Chamber day in, day out but who have received debt and capital write-downs. None of these things seem to happen for the average punter. In the case of IBRC, we know of 18,000 mortgage holders whose loans were sold to vulture funds with no talk of a write-down of capital or a reduction in the interest rate. These people are not even entitled to full regulation under the law, which is incredible.

Businesses are also suffering debt distress and there is not a business organisation in the country which does not deal, day in, day out, with debt distress and the legacy debt which exists within companies. Many businesses, having made it through the disaster of this Government, are now faced with a situation in which they have a millstone of debt in their business and the likelihood of their growing, employing people or adding to the economy in any way is held back because of the austere nature of the Government and the banks. If we were to reduce interest rates for mortgage holders, it would have a significant effect on the number of people in mortgage distress. Straight away we would bring down the number of people in mortgage distress and make mortgages achievable for families. The question is one of intent and whether the Government has the desire to do that. It is plain that Fine Gael does not have that desire, but there would have been an expectation that the Labour Party would have this as an objective, particularly through its housing sector policies. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, in the week in which an investigation is being held on low interest rates for large business people, to support the right of Irish citizens to an affordable interest rate as put forward in our Bill.

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