Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I absolutely appreciate that interest rates going up will be very unwelcome for tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of families across the country. Those with tracker mortgages, for example, will receive that letter, the fourth such letter in only a few months telling them their repayments are going up. The same will apply to people on variable rates and that is not welcome. As the Deputy will appreciate, the ECB makes its decisions independently of European governments. It is raising rates in an effort to bring down inflation which, if successful, will be of benefit to everyone. However, that is no consolation to people who have seen their repayments rise, and rise very sharply, over the last couple of months.

We passed a budget in this House only a few weeks ago and that did not include the reintroduction of mortgage interest relief. As the Deputy noted, it is not something we are going to rule out. It existed in the past when interest rates were, generally speaking, much higher. We will be happy to look at any proposals the Deputy has but I do not want to raise false expectations. The budget was only agreed recently and we have only just signed off on the Finance Bill. To reopen the question of the public finances after only a few weeks, indeed before the budget even comes into effect, would have other consequences we would have to consider.

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