Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

The clock starts now. First, I want to correct the record of the House. Last week I raised the matter of student fees and the fact that Labour Youth and Labour Party Members were not at the march. I am happy to correct the record of House in that the national chairperson of Labour Youth contacted me to tell me that there were some members of Labour Youth at the march. I commend them for taking that stance in opposition to their own party. It is a difficult thing to do. He was also able to confirm that there was only one member of the Labour Party Parliamentary Party at the march, the newly elected Member, Deputy Patrick Nulty. I am happy to correct the record of the House and the Labour Party Members might reflect on the reason they let down their youth movement so badly.

Second, and most importantly, regarding the mortgage arrears implementation strategy, we had a very good debate here some weeks ago with the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes. All of us agreed that the Minister of State was very forthcoming. In response to questions from myself and a Senator on the Government side of the House he stated:

[We] will not be obliged to wait until the budget is introduced in order to discover what the Government proposes to do. It is the Government's intention - as set out by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan - to put in place a full implementation strategy in advance of the budget. This will mean that no one will be obliged to wait until the first week of December to discover what are the Government's proposals.

He also stated:

It is the responsibility of [...] Members of this House to ensure that we deliver on what we have proposed. That is what holding a Government to account involves.

I intend to hold the Government to account here today because last Tuesday the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, in response to my colleague in the other House, stated:

I am planning to make an announcement before Christmas [not before the budget] but whether that is before or after the budget I cannot say. It is more likely to be in those weeks between the budget and the Christmas recess.

The Government has had the Keane report for almost nine weeks. The Minister of State came into this House and stated on the record, which I welcomed at the time, that we will have a full implementation strategy on mortgage arrears published in advance of the budget but his boss, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, has stated that we will not. I do not believe the Minister, Deputy Noonan, when he states the strategy will be published before Christmas.

We saw the figures last week. Almost 10% of mortgages in this country are in distress and the Government is doing nothing about it. The Government side has defeated a family home Bill already in this House, so what is it doing on mortgages?

The Minister of State or the Minister for Finance should return to the House and tell us why we are obliged to wait until after the budget to hear the Government's proposals. Only three weeks ago we were told they would be published in advance of the budget but the Government has reneged on that promise. Hopefully Members on the Government side will take up that issue.

Turning to what I may call "Joan's 12 Steps to Economic Recovery", which was published by the current Minister for Social Protection in advance of the election in February, the seventh step states that she will protect child benefit. I hope she does and I hope the Government is not flying a kite and causing grave concern to thousands of families by suggesting a €10 cut in child benefit. This will be fought tooth and nail by my party. Nowhere in any agreement does it state that child benefit will be cut. I remind Members opposite------