Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to ask the Leader for a debate on what actions the Government proposes to take in regard to the mortgage crisis. What has characterised the Government in this regard since the general election two years ago has been inaction and indifference. When we first proposed the Family Home Bill in this House in July 2011, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, proclaimed how the code of conduct on mortgage arrears was working exceptionally well and that there was no need for such legislation, and those were his exact words. Following that, we produced the Debt Settlement and Mortgage Resolution Office Bill in October 2011. We then produced the Regulation of Debt Management and Advisors Bill in May 2012 but all we have had from the Government is the Personal Insolvency Act which the Minister hopes will be up and running by July.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh highlighted some of the rises in costs for families, including energy costs and so on. The shambles of the property tax and what is expected of people in terms of valuing their houses is further compounded by the fact that we were able to rush through legislation for a property tax but it has taken us two and a half years to bring in personal insolvency legislation which puts the banks completely in control. Will the Leader ask the Taoiseach if he trusts the banks to deal in an honest and a fair way with the mortgage crisis, which has been going on for so many years? Some 182,000 mortgages are in arrears out of a total of 942,000 mortgages. All we have seen is complete inaction. What is truly lying at the heart-----