Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is hard to fathom that since July of last year we have seen six increases in ECB interest borrowing rates from 0% to 3.5%. Knowing, as we all do, that this represents hundreds if not thousands of euro worth of additional pressure on already hard-pressed families and workers, it is hard to fathom why Government has not done a single thing to support people. In fact, the increases in mortgage payments for many families go way beyond countering any supports that they have received by means of other cost-of-living measures. Now we are told that another increase is coming down the line, and the Government again tells us that it plans to do nothing to support those families who will struggle as a result.

The people who have suffered most as a result of these hikes are those who suffered on the previous occasion when Fianna Fáil was in government and whose loans were sold to the vultures. They are being crucified by the vulture funds that were welcomed into this country by the parties in government.

There is also another time bomb that is ready to explode, and that is those thousands of families who are currently on fixed rates and whose fixed-rate periods are coming to an end. They will see an astronomical increase in their payments. It is imperative that Deputy Doherty's motion before the Dáil is passed and implemented because the outworkings of the alternative do not bear thinking about.

In a week in which the Government announced €1 billion in subsidies for developers, what we are putting forward is a proposition to support the people the coalface. What we propose would cost €400 million at most.

The alternative to the Minister doing something is that he will push families, workers and those people who are lucky enough to have their own home at present into financial distress. It would be the irony of ironies, when we spend so much time in this House talking about those people who, as a result of the Minister's policies, are not able to have their own home, if it was matched with those people who are lucky enough to have a roof over their head that they can call their own being under threat because of the financial distress that will be caused if we do not implement the measures we are calling for. It is a time-bound, limited measure that will give some assistance to those people who have been suffering so much as a result of rising interest rates.

See this speech in context