Shane Ross (Independent)

I wish to change the subject and say a few words about the economy. The Exchequer returns were produced yesterday and they were not too bad. Let us congratulate the Government as things are going rather better than expected. There is one problem to which I should draw attention and it would be useful if the House were to debate it. Some figures were produced last week on what is known as private sector debt, indicating that individuals in their personal lives are borrowing phenomenal amounts of money. That is manifesting itself most obviously in the housing market. What we see here is a real problem of debt, growing by about 25% per annum, particularly among young people. A problem will arise if interest rates increase. If they rise steeply, the problem will be critical and will lead to the repossession of houses and people being bankrupted. It will lead to people not being able to pay their credit card bills. I suggest the Minister comes into the House to address this problem. I ask, in particular, that he address the problem of lending by the banks and the building societies which is so rash and reckless that these institutions no longer look for multiples of income when lending money for houses. They do not care about multiples of income but about how much equity or value is in the house, as opposed to the loan. This indicates they are looking at repossessions, not at ability to pay. At the end of the day, the price we will pay could be appalling. We could get into a negative equity situation in this country which would be a massive economic problem. I do not wish to denigrate the Government's achievements in turning the economy around—