Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister agree that for this proposal to be effective and not seen simply as a cost saving exercise, the solution lies with the banks? The information the Minister provided indicates that in recent years there has been no change in the principal amounts of loans owed to banks. In the case of a significant number of mortgages, the banks have been happy to take the mortgage interest supplement money and there has been no subsequent reduction in the principal. Does this not raise the question of the banks' morality? They seem not to have cared one way or the other and so long as they were getting the cheque in the post from the Government they were not going to do anything.

The Government has tried to introduce legislative measures to put in place an obligation for an engagement between the mortgage holder and the banks. Does the Minister have any evidence that this has occurred so far, other than what Senator Cullinane has referred to, that is to say, the banks sending out threatening letters and then suggesting that the threatening letters were part of the solution? In fact those letters are part of the problem. This is my main concern. Does the Minister not agree that the recommendations made by FLAC in respect of the Central Bank producing satisfactory evidence that lenders have sustainable strategies to maintain people in their homes without the need for the supplement, which I have put on the record, carries some weight and has a certain validity?