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

Again, as the Deputy knows well, when my party was in opposition, we used the influence we had at the time to secure an extension to mortgage interest relief, but that ended a number of years ago. It is undoubtedly the case that the ten successive ECB rate increases are placing a real burden on households throughout the country. I am not into rhetoric or political declarations; I am into finding solutions and helping families with the costs they have. We have been very active on the issue of supporting families who are facing high mortgage costs, with extensive engagement with the banks, the non-banks and Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, agreeing a new protocol and a new set of parameters for mortgage switching, which has been welcomed widely. We have also engaged directly with individual non-banks to put in place new solutions for customers.

Our response in the round to the high inflation, high energy costs and high interest costs people are facing will be set out in a cohesive and comprehensive form next Tuesday in the budget, as is appropriate.

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