Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When did the Taoiseach discover that the Government had to do those two things? The Minister said last year: "We are not going to wait for the fund to run out before we build up a second fund to allow a continuation of the scheme with whatever changes we might deem to be necessary". He said that there would be no issue here and he would continue with a second fund. He was saying that as late as December, when he stated in a parliamentary reply that he wanted more people and for them to be processed more quickly.

It is low-income people who are being let down again. Their hopes are raised with fanfare by the Government, but the dashing of those hopes is done silently. Why was what the Taoiseach just told the House not said by the Minister in his parliamentary reply? Why did the Minister not say that he was going to be approaching the Central Bank and that the Central Bank was going to place a limit on this? Why all the secrecy and silence around this? Why can the Government not just be upfront and straight with people about what it is doing instead of hoping that the problem will go away or that someone will not discover it?

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