Joe O'Toole (Independent)

It is important to recognise nothing stays the same. At the beginning of the economic crisis we were told that not only was it bad internationally and nationally but that we had huge personal debt and mortgage problems. In the past two years the size of personal debt has been reduced significantly and it has gone away as an issue. If anyone had listened carefully to the reports on the 83 default cases before the courts yesterday, one would have noted dthat one after another concerned someone with six houses, someone who had built a house against a business or some other arrangement. They did not just involve cases of people losing their homes, if any. I agree with Senator Fitzgerald's points, but any debate on this matter must be focused purely on the people who are losing their homes because of mortgage repayment difficulties, not on those who use their homes to buy six houses one after the other.

Last week the House passed a motion on Seanad reform. The matter will not go away. If the courts ruled last week that an 18-month delay was inappropriate and inordinate in the holding of the by-election in Donegal South-West, they will certainly rule that a 30-year delay in implementing a constitutional amendment in respect of Seanad reform, as passed by the people in a referendum in 1979, is completely out of the question. If the Government acted so smartly after the High Court's declaration, should it act more smartly on a decision made by the House?