Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is shaking his head. Under his watch during the term of the Government the mortgage crisis has doubled. It has peaked and is starting to reduce but it has got worse and worse and these are facts the Minister of State cannot dispute. Four families a day are losing their homes. This is what the Government has in mind when it says it will stand up to the banks and will protect mortgage holders and citizens. We know the mantra but we also know the reality.

I acknowledge that yesterday Deputy Michael McGrath tabled a similar Bill, as did Senator Feargal Quinn last week. I welcome this because this is a genuine campaign to force the Government to do something which it states on the record it wants to achieve. The Government has not just said in recent weeks that it will empower the Central Bank to set interest rates for the financial institutions. This goes back to 2011. The Taoiseach himself suggested these powers would be given to the Governor of the Central Bank. At the time Mike Aynsley went on RTE to say the Central Bank did not want these powers. In 2013 I met the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, to discuss the issue and we are very aware, as the Minister of State laid out in her speech, that he does not want these powers. However, these powers need to be given to the Governor of the Central Bank because all of the other approaches have failed.

We can argue over how the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted and we can argue over how many institutions should be covered, and this is what Committee Stage is for if we are genuine about improving the Bill to reach the objective which every party in the House wants to achieve, at least according to the statements which have been made, which is the reduction of standard variable interest rates for our citizens. The challenge is to accept it. It is time to put up or shut up. Let there be no doubt the Deputies who vote against the Bill are abandoning hundreds of thousands of mortgage interest holders who are being fleeced by their financial institutions.

9 o’clock

Those financial institutions would not be in existence today if it was not for the generosity of those same customers whose Government bailed them out in 2008. This is about walking the walk, not just talking the talk. I ask the Minister, in a genuine way, to allow this Bill to go to Committee Stage so that we can put it up to the banks together.

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