David Norris (Independent)

Let us put all that aside and just say the people of Ireland believed they had a commitment. There can be as much wriggle as the Minister likes. I know the Minister's constituency well because my roots are basically in the same bog and I know what people are saying down there. People who were unlucky enough to have bought houses are now faced with this. I am glad the Minister has made this change and I appeal to him to backdate it to the time when the plain people of Ireland, who his party always claims to represent, believed, erroneously or not, that they had a commitment that there would not be a change.

Since the Minister raised all these questions, it would be good to have a full look at this issue although I accept this is not the place for it. It seems to be very unfair with the price of houses now and the fact the banks have lent enormous amounts of money, including 100% loans and so on. The Minister might also look at advertisements. I cannot understand all the conditions because they are written deliberately to confuse people, including all the stuff about repossession. We now face repossessions and negative equity. There have been eight jumps in interest rates over the past two years and there is no doubt that people are in difficulty. Will the Minister look at graduated stamp duty next time? It seems terribly unfair that somebody who pays €300,000 for a house — I do not have the exact figures — does not pay stamp duty but somebody who pays €301,000, pays stamp duty on the lot. People should only pay stamp duty on the difference. It would be very useful if the Minister looked again at this issue.

I am happy to support Senator O'Toole's recommendations. I support them in preference to the Fine Gael one. The Minister was gracious enough to say I had a nodding acquaintance with the English language. The language in which the Fine Gael recommendation is couched is a little lengthy, wordy and represents opaque legalese. While it is very often necessary to use such language in legislation, Senator O'Toole's recommendation is appealing in its clarity, simplicity and relevance to the concerns of a considerable number of people. I understand that it is not possible to appoint a cut-off date which does not severely affect the unfortunate people who are on just the wrong side of it, but the people of Ireland understood they had a commitment.

The Tánaiste is an honourable man — I do not impugn his honour — but the people understood that Fianna Fáil would be resolute and would not tinker in this area. Suddenly, however, the ground was cut from under the financial section of the party and the Tánaiste's Department. The decent, moral and popular policy now would be to backdate the provisions in the Bill in the manner suggested by Senator O'Toole. I appeal to the Tánaiste to adopt that course.

While the construction industry is a very important engine in our society, it is one on which we can be overly dependent. I was very glad to hear the Tánaiste indicate as I came into the House that he will regard it as part of his brief to look into diversification and that we should not be overly dependent on this area. It is not a market that can infinitely expand without dangerous consequences.