Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

Last year 400 people in this country were sent to prison for not paying their mortgages or bank loans. It is four months since the revised programme for Government was issued but we heard only over the weekend that the Government was "interested" in putting forward a homeowners' support scheme. Why was there a delay? Does the Leader know what life is like for anybody who runs the risk of losing his or her home? To talk about an expert group at this late stage is an absolute insult to taxpayers and homeowners. I recommend that the Leader take on board Senator MacSharry's advice to the House today and work on it straightaway.

Another very serious problem was well flagged in the newspapers today, namely, the surge in the number of CAO applications for college places. We now see a situation where two students will compete for every college place. We are running the risk of having a dog eat dog points race such as we had in the 1980s. The only question the House needs to ask is whether the Minister for Education and Science will respond to what is actually a positive development. Young and mature people want to return to college, which is a great reaction in a recession. Will the Minister respond by providing more college places? That is what parents and young people want to know today. However, is he saying instead that young people should take the boat, choose emigration or go on the dole? I really want to hear him respond in the House because the situation is very serious. We cannot have our young people who have worked so hard throughout their education discovering there may be no place for them in higher education.