Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach indicated that he would return to the House for Committee Stage of the Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013. Will he be doing so for today's session? If the Taoiseach is not going to be present today, is the Leader in a position to indicate the point in the debate at which he will attend the House to answer the questions put to him on Second Stage? I welcome the Leader's commitment to ensuring that as much time as possible will be allocated in respect of the debate on the Bill and that the guillotine will not apply either on Committee Stage or Report and Final Stages.

I wish to put on record a great sporting achievement that took place yesterday. I congratulate the Irish cricket team on qualifying for the cricket world cup in Australia in 2015. This is an all-Ireland team and it shows how sport can bring together both traditions on the island. It is a magnificent achievement. This is the third world cup in a row that the Irish cricket team has qualified for. It would be remiss of me not to mention my county, Dublin, whose hurlers won the Leinster championship for the first time in 52 years. What a fantastic result that was.

I wish to raise a more serious note. On several occasions I have raised in the House the issue with regard to ambulance coverage and especially the HSE ambulance service. We are all aware of several instances that occurred recently in Cork and Kerry where ambulances, unfortunately, were sent to the wrong addresses and where tragedies occurred. I am just as concerned about the fact that there was no ambulance cover in a large part of Dublin yesterday. This is not the first time it has happened. An ambulance crew resuscitated a lady taken from the sea last week but yesterday, due to cutbacks within the HSE, there was no ambulance service covering 200,000 people in the north county area. I have asked for it before but I am asking again for a debate on the emergency services and the resources available, if not in this session, then early in the new session.

I wish to ask the Leader something once more. Yesterday, my colleague, Senator Thomas Byrne, raised an issue which I continue to raise with the Leader, namely, the revised code of conduct on mortgage arrears. We should have a debate with the Minister for Finance in the House in respect of the revised code of conduct on mortgage arrears. I have no wish to sound like a broken record. I have tried to raise the issue when dealing with other Bills but it has not been allowed, and I understand why. We need a specific debate on this matter.

I offer one example of what the new code of conduct is doing to the cohort of more than 150,000 people who are in mortgage arrears on their principal private residences. I received a case yesterday. Obviously, I will not name the person in question. He received a letter from one of our pillar banks, the ICS Building Society. It relates to a principal private residence where there is a father, a mother and three young children. The bank flatly turned down a proposal although this is a case in which the people involved are making an effort to pay the mortgage. The bank said it had carefully assessed the request, taking into account the details provided by the customer of his financial situation. A formal review was carried out by the bank's mortgage appeals board. What did it come up with? There were two options. The first was voluntary sale, whereby the customer is instructed to appoint his choice of estate agent and solicitor to progress sale of the property. Then, where a sale is agreed at a satisfactory price, the bank would facilitate the sale and, in the event of a shortfall, it will discuss with the customer the repayment proposals for the residual balance. That is option one.

Option two is voluntary surrender. This is where the customer could hand back the keys of the property to enable the bank to realise its security in respect of the customer's debt. These are the only two options for the family home. The letter states that after that, in the event of a shortfall, the customer would remain liable for the cost of outstanding debt, including accrued interest, charges and legal selling and other related costs. That is what is happening under the code of conduct for mortgage arrears. That is a fact.

That is one of many cases that I have received and that I am working on. I imagine every Senator in the House has received the same. What in God's name are we actually doing about it? We are doing nothing. The Government has caved in to the banks with the new code of conduct on mortgage arrears. The Government has given everything. The letter from the ICS Building Society is dated this week. That it what they are operating under. It relates to a principal private residence, a family home. Where are these people going to go?