Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I am glad the Government conceded to the Opposition's request regarding the means of dealing with the Water Services (Amendment) Bill. It is very important. We all agree that this House does its job properly in scrutinising legislation. The idea of allowing but one day for Committee Stage is wrong. I thank the Leader and the Whips on all sides for deciding on a reasonable arrangement such that Committee Stage will resume today and Report Stage will be on Monday. That allows for proper consideration of this very important legislation.

I raised yesterday a question to which I did not get an answer. The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, said very clearly in the House three weeks ago that the Government would publish the mortgage arrears implementation strategy in advance of the budget. This was said in response to a question from me and Members on the other side of the House. The Minister for Finance, in response to our Dáil spokesperson on finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, said it would probably not be published before the budget but that he will do his best to have it in place before Christmas. This is not good enough.

It is nine weeks since the publication of the Keane report and nine months since the Government, after the general election, made sweeping promises regarding what it would do for distressed mortgage holders. Nothing has been done by it, with the exception of defeating a very substantial Bill brought forward by Members on this side of the House to protect the principal private residence or family home of individuals. Circumstances are becoming increasingly worse and mortgage arrears cases account for nearly 10% of all mortgages. When former Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, was in the House, I raised with him the issue of shared and affordable housing mortgages, in respect of which the average arrears rate is over 20%. That local authorities are not governed by the statutory code of conduct on mortgage arrears is a major problem.

All I ask the Government to do is to keep one promise, namely, its promise to the hundreds of thousands of individuals in arrears with their mortgages. What is the position? I have immense respect for Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, and I am sure he did not come into this House to mislead it intentionally. However, he obviously has no idea what the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, is actually doing. When will the Government publish its comprehensive mortgage arrears implementation strategy? It said it would do so before the budget but this will not be done.

Three weeks ago, I called for a debate in this House on the proposed appointment of an individual to the European Court of Auditors. The Deputy Leader believed this appointment would be a good idea, as did the Leader, yet the debate thereon was never arranged. Yesterday was an embarrassment for Ireland. I am not being personal in saying so. That our nominee was rejected by our peers in Europe is very serious. We need to debate this, but not the individual concerned specifically. The debate ought to happen next week. The Government will continue to try to have the individual appointed, although our peers in Europe have rejected him. I know Members on the other side of the House are very concerned about how this is done. I propose a proper discussion on how we will deal with all appointments in the future. My belief and that of my party is that, when the Government proposes someone for a job such as that with the European Court of Auditors, the nominee should, at the very least, be interviewed by a joint Oireachtas committee. He or she should be interviewed in this House also. We should try to achieve Irish consensus on nominating people for important EU jobs and others. The job in question is not a doddle; it is important and the Irish people and their Government got a slap in the face yesterday from Europe. The problem with this is that the Government knew it was coming. It led with its chin and knew its nominee would be rejected. I want a debate on this next week.