Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)

Based on the figures released this morning on mortgages and mortgage arrears, it seems that most of the figures relate to those who are three months or more in arrears. However, there appears to be a plethora of people who are in the realm of being one or two months in arrears. These numbers will increase. The number of those in arrears has gone from 55,000 in June to 57,000 in August. This is a huge number of people who are two months in arrears. The Minister for Finance will be in the House today, but we need long-term solutions. Mention is made of debt forgiveness, but this is not debt forgiveness rather a restructuring of the debt with the banks. We need to get serious on this issue.

We hear this morning that Catholic parishes are being encouraged to give any surplus moneys they have to a fund for the general benefit of the Catholic Church. One potential use for moneys from this fund is to benefit victims of clerical child abuse. This is unsatisfactory. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is trying to cater for possible future claims, but we need a more structured approach to this. We cannot have a situation where genuine claimants must rely on a nebulous fund to meet their claims. I call for whatever Minister has responsibility for this area to take this issue seriously. It is a situation that can only get worse. I urge the Leader to address this.