Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I know. The demands of ministerial office are such that the Minister of State does not get to write his own scripts. If he did, there would not be such inconsistencies.

I agree with other Senators that the banks must share the burden. Could the Seanad discuss the Bill accepted in the other House in Private Members' time without a vote? It is now parked in the Dáil and will be prevented from being brought to us until such time as it moves forward or is dropped. It can be amended; in the other House Deputy Michael McGrath said improvements could be made to it. It would be workable, as the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, acknowledged, but we do not have much time to deal with the matter.

I encourage the other House to re-examine the Family Home Bill. I take the point that there would be a judicial process, from which we want to move away, if we can. I agree; therefore, let us just do it. That is what the Debt Settlement and Mortgage Resolution Office Bill seeks to do. In the interim, however, giving the courts such powers - having been a banker - would scare the living life out of every banker whom I know, to the extent that no case would get nowhere near the courts. The same innovative minds that came up with derivatives to lose many billions of pounds, dollars and euro all over the world would be put to work to ensure mortgagees who have lost one of two incomes in a household and are now under serious pressure because they have borrowed up to 12 times their income to purchase a house would be kept in it.

What would be wrong with embracing the concept behind what we have asked the Troika to do for us and those three bodies are doing for Greece and other economies? We should say to people, "If you are a good medium-term bet, let us elongate your mortgage and come up with different terms. Yes, let us pay a dividend to the bank in which we, the State, are a shareholder, but let us also give you dignity by being able to stay in your own home and pay your bills." That is why I am not in favour of the solution proposed: "We will stick you in a council house and you will be fine."

I do not doubt the Minister of State's commitment or that of the Government. I asked New Beginning what was it that had kept Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in government, that kept Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government, and kept officials from taking this step? Is it the all powerful within the banks or the banking division of the Department of Finance that stops us from taking this step to help the public? Instead, it is being kicked out through Mr. Declan Keane or Mr. Hugh Cooney before him, or the implementation strategy which will be put in place following debates in the Dáil. What is it that is stopping us from taking this one radical step to give the public what it wants? The reason the people destroyed Fianna Fáil was there was no sense of ownership of public policy. The public should be given this to let them see that in some way they are purchasing the same thing which, as a State entity, we are purchasing internationally. If that is done for them, the Minister of State will be in government forever.

I want to see real progress being made in this regard but not debt forgiveness. People should be given dignity by being allowed to stay in their own homes. We need innovative steps to ensure this happens.