Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is right that the European Banking Authority did indeed oversee and supervise the regime for mortgage breaks. Under those rules, mortgage holders in Germany, Spain and Italy got payment breaks for 12 months. In this State, they got three months followed by another three months, which is six months in total and half the time allowed to mortgage holders in other jurisdictions. The Taoiseach knows as well as I do that an extension to the mortgage breaks had to be agreed and secured by 30 September. The Taoiseach knows and I know that the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform and the Tánaiste waltzed into a meeting with bankers on 28 September, had a conversation with them and there was no extension to mortgage breaks. That was three weeks ago. Now we are facing level 5 restrictions and 200,000 people will find themselves out of work. Those already out of work are reporting to us, to the Money Advice & Budgeting Service and to other authorities that the banks are not facilitating them and are not offering them alternative payment methods.

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