Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and commend him and the Minister for Finance for reaching a stage where there is no longer any doubt that the new arrangement that has got rid of the promissory notes. There has been an extension of the payment term and reduction in the interest rate and that cannot be seen as anything other than a good deal. The Minister of State dealt with Sinn Féin earlier and he can talk to the Sinn Féin Senators about it.

I am glad the Minister of State mentioned that further progress is required. I do not want the EU to see this as the deal being done. With the banking union and the ESM, the 29 June statement on breaking the link between banking and sovereign debt, which has not yet happened, must be followed up. This arrangement has sovereignised the promissory note arrangement. We must keep our eye on this issue. If another country, such as Belgium, had a banking crash now, the banks would effectively be capitalised directly through the ESM. We did not have the arrangement available to us and Ireland is at a grave disadvantage for that reason and I ask the Minister of State to continue pushing on that issue.

We have an hour to discuss this, which is not enough. I am glad the Minister of State is here but this is a complex arrangement. At the very least, the Minister of State and his senior colleague should make themselves available to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform to go through this in more detail.

There are other questions that I cannot ask in the time available but I want to hone in on the sense of relief that the interest rate has reduced and the payment term has extended. We all feel that as Oireachtas Members and certainly the Government feels it. We must contrast that, however, with the feelings of those in mortgage arrears where there has been no improvement. I know the Minister of State is working on this but perhaps some sort of similar arrangement could be offered to a mortgage holder to extend the term and reduce the interest rate, allowing him to have some disposable income. While forecasts for growth are flat or positive to a degree, we will not return to growth in real terms until the mortgage crisis is resolved.

I ask the Leader to provide more time to discuss this matter. I await the Minister of State's concluding remarks with interest.