Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome him back. I congratulate the Minister for Social Protection on extending the fuel allowance by one week in recognition of the extremely bad weather. I ask the Acting Leader again to arrange a debate on fuel poverty. On 1 May the cost of solid fuel will increase which will affect the poorest people in Ireland, the people who do not have central heating. As I said earlier this week, heating costs for older people and people who live in poverty is prohibitive and needs to be addressed.

I congratulate Senator Bacik on her recently published report on prison reform. She championed the topic for a long period. I seek a debate on the report because it is important and made a number of very important recommendations.

Yet again I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on banking. Recent figures show that lending to SMEs was down 5% in 2013 and we are also aware that lending to the mortgage market is at all time low. The economy will never return to good fortune if the banks do not play their part. Again we can see that they are not willing to lend to SMEs or the mortgage market. The time has come for us to reflect on the role of banking. We cannot have the Minister for Finance here often enough. As the Leader pointed out, he has attended here on a number of occasions to debate matters like the Finance Bill. However, he has not been here to discuss the specific issue of banking. I want the Leader to address the request to the Minister and not the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, who is regularly sent here for debates.