Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I am pleased that we are to discuss the issue of mortgage arrears on the back of the Keane report, with which a number of us on this side of the House are disappointed. While I have nothing against the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, I am disappointed that the Minister for Finance will not be in the House to answer questions on this issue or hear the views of Members on this side of the House who have published three Bills already to assist those in mortgage arrears. I remind the Leader and his colleagues that they saw fit to vote down the Family Home Bill 2011 which would have protected principal private residences.

I ask the Leader to urgently arrange a debate on the raid on private pensions undertaken by the Government which will take nearly €500 million from individuals who are saving for their retirement. The Leader might be aware of a report by Aon Hewitt, an eminent pension consultancy firm, which independently assessed a number of large pension schemes around the country and found that two thirds of would be paying the levy only by reducing their members' benefits. We have discussed in the House the 10% reduction in pensions among annuitants in the Tara Mines scheme and the same has happened in the airline workers' scheme. Of the €457 million raised through this private pensions raid, the Government has decided to trouser €200 million by putting it into the Central Fund. Two thirds of pension schemes are going to reduce benefits to persons who are already retired to pay the pension levy. I am, therefore, seeking an urgent debate on the matter. I want the Government to tell me how many jobs it has created so far through initiatives such as taking people's savings to pay for VAT reductions for large organisations.

Does the Leader agree with the comments of the Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence, Deputy Alan Shatter, who in having two portfolios seems to be the most powerful person in the State, inn calling into question the views of eight Attorneys General who raised serious concerns about the referendum on parliamentary investigations, concerns that I raised in the House with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin? The Minister dismissed the views of the former Attorneys General as nonsense. This arrogance shown by the Minister to eight Attorneys General, appointed by different parties, is outrageous. In stark terms, it also shows the sheer arrogance shown by the Government to both constitutional referenda. In the case of the investigations referendum, it is sleepwalking the public into voting "Yes."