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

The mortgage credit directive is due for transposition into Irish law by 21 March this year. As the Taoiseach might know, the directive is extremely important. It relates to the rights of people buying mortgages. We have seen in the past that the banks have trampled on those rights in this State. The directive has 29 specific areas where the Government can go further than the minimum required under the directive. It is questionable whether secondary legislation will suffice to implement the directive, which contains measures designed to prevent reckless lending, something that is not law in this State and therefore we have the untouchable bankers walking about because what they did was not illegal. When will this statutory instrument come forward and when will we have a proper debate with enough time to deal with this crucially important issue, which has affected so many people across the State? Under the Taoiseach's watch, there are still 100,000 families in mortgage distress five years on from the Government taking office.

See this speech in context