Eoghan Harris (Independent)

Twenty years ago, I defined social democracy as the free market mediated by the state. In other words, the state was like a tough referee trying to let the match run as freely as possible and only interfering when there were some serious professional fouls. That is roughly what social democracy means in practice.

The reason I complain so much about party politics here is because I fear the role of anger. On Monday night, I saw the nasty side of it on Pat Kenny's television programme "The Frontline". There is a lot of that anger there. I warn the Opposition, although I am not specifying the party, that they may be in Government soon and if so, they will have to deal with that anger too. They should be careful of what they foment therefore. Fomenting that kind of anarchy, which is going nowhere, is very bad news. We need a lot of light, which was one of the great roles of the Seanad. It stood slightly back from partisan politics and addressed itself rationally to the problems that needed to be solved.

We need to deal with the problems of personal debt, of which the largest component part is a mortgage. The problem of negative equity is the largest component in private debt. It is ridiculous to pretend that NAMA can solve that. The Minister rightly said that we do not want to NAMA-ise that because NAMA will come after the defaulters. However, we need a system of State agencies to assess each individual mortgage and then lean on the banks to create lifetime mortgages. They could be pitched so that people will end up paying a market rent, so that their mortgage becomes a rent and is passed on to their nearest relatives. Otherwise, 300,000 people, which is equivalent to the size of the public sector, will never be out of debt. It is corroding their marriages and private lives, as well as leaving a weeping wound in Irish society. We must address that now.