David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to second the amendment in the name of Senator Mooney. As I understand it, the Minister is closing this to new applicants in 2014 and the whole thing will be abolished in 2018. I presume that to a certain extent it gives people advance notice. If they are considering buying a house, they must take this into account in their calculations. In this extreme financial situation, that is not so unfair. To phase it out for existing people is dangerous because we already have severe strain in the mortgage area. Banks are determined to increase the number of evictions and we have international advice to do this as well. This is utterly heartless and cruel and I despise the system that makes this the case. When this crisis was just beginning to be visible, I suggested that we should have a Department of Home Security, not Homeland Security like mad Mr. Bush.