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

They took my time, but it is all right. Like the other Deputies, I commiserate with the families in Donegal who lost their four lovely sons. It is very sad.

I do not understand what is going on here at all. I am sure the same is true of anyone outside looking in here seeing what is going on. We debated a Bill to put money away in a rainy day fund and to make this generation suffer more without services even though they are struggling to survive. They are already struggling as it is and yet we want to make sure that we pay the banks in the next bailout. The Government had money a few minutes ago to put into this fund. Why does it not do something about these people who are in distressed situations and who have mortgage arrears? Fine Gael promised it would do that if it got into government again. We all subscribed to the ideal that we would help people with distressed mortgages.

I know there are some people trying to milk the system. However, where a genuine family cannot pay their mortgage, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government should fund the local authority to buy out that house and rent it back to the people who are there. If one considers it logically, they will have to finish up in a house somewhere. They are surely not going to be put out under the bushes or on the side of the road.

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