Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Government's announcement yesterday of 31 May as the date for the referendum on the fiscal compact. We had a good debate in this House on the issue, which should be followed through with another discussion once the referendum legislation is published. We might be somewhat constrained in terms of the time available. I understand the legislation will come before the Dáil in the next week or so and will have to come to us promptly thereafter. I assure the Leader of my party's support in facilitating the scheduling of that legislation, but I ask that sufficient time be given for debate once the legislation is published. We have no difficulty with sitting on a Monday or Friday if that is required. We will play a positive role in the campaign to secure a "Yes" vote for the good of our citizens.

During the debate on the Finance Bill last week I took the opportunity to ask both the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, about the mortgage arrears implementation strategy, but received no answer. This issue, which I have raised week after week in the House, is getting worse by the day. It amounts to a crisis and is the single most important problem to be tackled in this country. I ask the Leader for a commitment that on Members' return after the short Easter break, he will schedule a debate with the Minister specifically on mortgage arrears, as Members must ascertain what is happening in this regard.

Finally, it is D-day minus three in respect of payment of the household charge. Anyone who considers the handling of this charge with a cold eye will state it has been nothing short of a disaster. I was less than assured when listening to the comments made in a radio broadcast this morning by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan. I found it quite amusing when he informed the public that 29 black sacks arrived yesterday at the household charge office. Does the Minister intend to open these black sacks and are their contents known? Is the number of applications contained therein known? I ask once again for a formal extension of the deadline for the payment of this charge. Fianna Fáil has published a Bill that would allow for the extension of this date to September and would allow instalment payments. Most reasonable people will agree that the inability of citizens to enter one of the 1,100 post offices located nationwide to simply pay for the charge over the counter is an absolute nonsense. I believe the real reason for this is the Government will not pay An Post the handling fee for so doing.