Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

Senator Brian Hayes brought up the awful situation which arose last weekend in Dublin whereby many people queued on Saturday to purchase a house. Many were not dealt with on the day and were told to return the following day, by which time the houses had gone up in price by €25,000. I am not interested in how much weight free market policies have in such situations. These people are vulnerable. They would have scrimped and saved, cajoled and begged their parents or the banks to get the money and overnight they had their hopes dashed. That is abuse of vulnerable people and it is good that Senator Brian Hayes has brought it to our attention.

Senator O'Toole said that this kind of thing has been going on for four or five years and that he and Senator Ross have raised the matter regularly. He is equally worried about the quality of houses built under the HomeBond scheme.