Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

----- lives were put on hold, as the capacity to work and perhaps to start one's own business again is heavily restricted. Over that period, mortgage interest supplement of €46,000 was paid, at the end of which the loan outstanding actually had risen to €241,000, that is, by €11,000. My point to Members is this money is simply going straight to the banks and what is needed is resolution. When one has a bank crash on the scale experienced in Ireland, one needs a resolution of the loans and the Government, as did the previous Administration supported by Senator Byrne, advised by the Cooney report and subsequently the Keane report, has proposed a mortgage arrears resolution process. I am not aware of any country that has experienced such a bank crash involving properties or of individual states within the United States - where property crashes happen quite frequently - in which there has not been a resolution process. This essentially is what the Government is doing, while recognising the particular situation in which the people involved here find themselves. The Government has stated it will phase out this supplement in respect of them over a four-year period, while they get an opportunity to return to work. I understand that people consider money paid out to the bank-----