Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister is trying to be helpful but, in all honesty, these banks, notwithstanding the fact that they are majority State owned, are acting in a really gung-ho way towards families. That includes families who have businesses and a variety of circumstances and commitments as well to employment. Essentially, the Minister is adopting a hands-off approach and is indicating that there is little or nothing he can do. I actually do not agree with that.

I think the Minister is in the position of being Minister for Finance so that he has a capacity to work out solutions that are helpful to people who have actually tried their best and are paying it off. The social consequences of cutting these people adrift, whether they are businesspeople or people in a family situation who may lose their family home, and the social cost is catastrophic right around Ireland, particularly as regards business loans in rural Ireland and in farming, allied to Brexit. That is what we are trying to explain to the Minister.

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