Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Some of that money is keeping people in houses. We must ensure that the withdrawal of the subsidy will not cause people to leave their houses. Every time a family leaves a property, it is bad for society economically and socially. It puts pressure on housing agencies, local authorities and voluntary housing bodies. This debate is probably part of a wider context about the bigger challenge facing the Government where so many households are in huge debt and we do not seem to have found a proper process of resolution.

The point could also be made that if we were starting with a blank sheet, we could have a better system for administering the mortgage subsidy, which is very much a housing issue yet was being facilitated by officers from the Department of Social Protection, where every issue relating to housing would be corralled within a single housing authority or Department. Perhaps we need to look at that in the future. Could the Minister give us some indication that in conjunction with her Government colleagues, in respect of the money her Department is no longer paying and which was the difference between some people being able to pay their mortgage or not, she will ensure that we will be able to put sufficient pressure on the financial institutions to force them to sit down with the affected families with the intention of keeping people in their homes? The entire House is at one on that. How will the Minister ensure that the removal of the mortgage subsidy will not result in people being forced out of their houses on to, at best, a housing list and, in some extreme cases, on to the streets? I appeal to the Minister to give us a positive overview of her and the Government's thinking about debt resolution and mortgage distress as it now sadly applies to thousands of families across the country.