Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What does it mean in practice that mortgage interest supplement is being phased out? Are there any other provisions the Minister can use to stop payments where ordinarily they would not have stopped, other than the provision being inserted that it should not be paid after 1 January 2018? Is there anything else that can be done to phase it out or is it that it will come to an end, as it would have in any event, for those people? Has the Minister given consideration to a temporary payment, even for people with insurance contributions, to get them over the hump? We all agree that we should not be putting this money into the bank - there is universal agreement on that. Having spoken with the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, I think he would have been supportive of the idea of a temporary payment in principle. It is always hard to put it in practice because a cut then has to be made involving others.