Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----restricting pension tax relief and hammering high earners, there is a predictability to the expenditure proposals as well. Each proposal is designed to target an individual group of voters without any overall strategy or coherence.

As regards the impact of this motion, the proposal is unlikely to be of benefit to mortgage holders who fixed their mortgages - approximately two fifths of all mortgage holders or 39% - as the interest rate on fixed interest mortgages will not change until the end of the fixed rate period. Mortgage holders who could and did fix their mortgages made what they regarded as a prudent decision. However, they are unlikely to benefit from the proposal in the motion. This may give rise to potential equity and fairness issues. Equally, anyone who took out a mortgage since last June, would presumably not benefit from this proposal either.

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