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

First of all, as the Deputy has said, the European Central Bank is independent, and because of inflation, it is taking its measures and making decisions independently to get inflation down. I know from the CSO figures released today that the number of first-time buyers is up this year as against last year. There has been quite an interesting increase in first-time buyers, and that is because of the help to buy scheme and the first-time owner's scheme the Minister has brought in. We have good measures to help young people around affordability. For those with existing mortgages, ideally the banks should be in a position to absorb these increases and we will monitor the situation. The Minister for Finance keeps in regular contact with the banks on a range of issues, but suffice it to say this will obviously create pressure for homeowners in terms of an increase in rates. As I said, in the forthcoming budget we are doing a broad range of measures to try to help people come through this current crisis.

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