Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Michael McGrath and Fianna Fáil for bringing this terribly important motion before this House. One of the saddest things I encounter at clinics is when young couples - the boy and the girl in the couple might come to see me together, or on his or her own - tell me they do not have €10 or €20 at the end of the week. That is the difference between living and not living. I know the Minister understands this problem because he deals with it himself. I know he is not isolated from it. One of the most awful things is that there was a bailout for every big person, but there was no bailout for young honest-to-God couples who borrowed money because they wanted to get on the property ladder. They got their mortgages and did their best to provide houses and homes for themselves and their families. If they borrowed €300,000 or €400,000 to buy the properties they are living in, they were encouraged to look for every penny of it. The banks could not give them enough. It is awful that many such people are now left struggling and barely living hand to mouth. As Members of the Oireachtas, we have to make provisions for young people in these circumstances. We have to legislate and do anything and everything we can. I do not care what it is.

The big people who borrowed tens of millions have been sorted. They went into bankruptcy and came out of it again. If they have gone back working again, I wish them good luck with that. I do not begrudge anybody anything. I want to see the small person being sorted as well. I want to see young couples being able to live. People who are killing themselves working should be able to have a little disposable income at the end of the week. This might involve meaningful and tangible debt resolution that will work having to be put properly in place. I thank those who have been helping people with distressed mortgages all along. Some of them have to charge a modest fee so they can try to assist young couples. It is an important job. When young couples ring me, come into my clinic or meet me somewhere to tell me their sad stories about how bad their finances are, many of them have written out in black and write the details of the costs that are making things so tight for them. They have itemised how much it is costing them to educate their children or run their cars. We have to be seen to do something tangible to help such people. I thank Fianna Fáil and Deputy Michael McGrath again. I wish them well with this Bill, which I fully support.

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