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

I raised with the Taoiseach earlier the issues mortgage holders face. The real shame is that on 30 September the opportunity to extend a full break for mortgage holders was lost. That is on the Taoiseach and it is a big failure of his Government. Can he set out for us very clearly what alternatives, what propositions, he will put to the banks, given that MABS reports that banks, as I said earlier, are not playing ball? The Central Bank has to sanction banks for their failure to comply with the code of conduct for mortgage arrears which, as the Taoiseach knows, puts an obligation on the lender to present the borrower - the mortgage holder - with all options available to him or her as far as alternative repayment methods are concerned.

I want the Taoiseach to set out the details in that regard.

What does he envision in terms of the eviction ban? An eviction ban that lasts for a couple of weeks will not be sufficient. In our view, we needed a ban on these practices long before Covid-19 entered into the equation. In terms of rent freezes, will the legislation the Taoiseach is bringing forward deal with both a ban on evictions and a freeze of rents?

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