Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Leader will be aware, there was a protest by carers at the gates yesterday in respect of the respite grant. The 20% cut to that grant takes effect today. I ask the Leader to investigate whether anything will be done to repeal this savage cut of 20% or more to these people. These are people who live on meagre incomes, and something should be done about this cut. In addition, we learned in recent days that the mobility grant, to which it seems there is still no solution, was savagely cut. Dealing with that has been deferred further to October at which time these people will be discriminated against again. No new applicants are being permitted. Surely it is within the capabilities of the Oireachtas to deal more quickly with this issue. We are talking about the most vulnerable people who face challenges that most of us in this House do not have to overcome. It is incumbent on us to take action urgently, and I would be grateful if the Leader could address this issue and raise it with the relevant Ministers without delay.

I call for a debate very specifically on the issue of securitisation in the banks. A very brave housewife, Miriam Freeman, succeeded in recent days in the courts as a lay litigant to gain full discovery against a bank with regard to her loan. Are the loan books being sold on through third party companies? Does this occur in the banks which the State, as shareholder, owns? Will the small borrowers of Ireland, the people struggling in mortgage arrears, be under additional pressure from a bank calling in these loans and trying to repossess homes which it no longer owns? Is this legal? We have seen the leadership shown by a very brave housewife from Dublin who took on the might of the huge legal team of Bank of Scotland Ireland and succeeded in gaining full discovery. Unusually but thankfully, here is a bank which must tell the truth. I call for a debate in this regard because it is of the utmost importance that the small borrowers of Ireland struggling with the market know whether the banks which, we as people own, sold their mortgages to third-party companies. At the same time these banks are increasing the pressure to recover their loans and threatening repossession in many cases.