Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will oppose the Order of Business. As my colleague Deputy Thomas Byrne mentioned the other day, it is not in keeping with the programme for Government to have Committee Stage of this most important Bill two days after Second Stage. Fundamental changes and reform to pension law are proposed as part of the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill. In the referendum the people voted to keep what they hoped would be a reflective thoughtful Chamber which would give appropriate consideration to important legislation such as the Bill. The Bill will not get the consideration it deserves and requires. We have had an opportunity to table amendments, but by no means have we had an opportunity to assess the impact of the Bill to the extent we should between Second and Committee Stages to table the optimum number of amendments. As Senator Byrne stated on Tuesday, we will oppose the Order of Business in this regard.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, comes to the House later to discuss the Central Bank report to be announced at 11 a.m. As seems to be so often the case the media is better informed than the Houses of the Oireachtas. In the Irish Independent today, Charlie Weston highlights what he believes to be part of the report, which is that the number of people throughout the country in arrears for more than three months is almost as high as 100,000. This is despite the Taoiseach and the Minister stating the 30% target for work-outs with people in arrears is being reached by most of the banks. The fox is still in charge of the henhouse and nobody is looking after the people. I have anecdotal evidence from people coming to my clinics that banks, particularly those which have chosen to exit the Irish market, are honing in on people with additional equity in their properties to ensure they sell them to give the bank the quickest exit. This does not give the consumer the best outcome. The forbearance options put on the table are those which suit the bank and not the people. Since 2008 we have sat late hours to deal with bank guarantees and the provision of funds from parties on both sides of the House. Rather than taking on board the spirit with which this was done the banks are showing contempt for consumers. The forbearance options put forward are for the banks and are not in the best interests of the consumers or the struggling coping classes.

Yesterday, several days in advance of the Labour Party conference, the Tánaiste spoke quite cynically about potential tax cuts for the coping classes. The biggest challenge we have had in recent years is the mortgage crisis and all we have done is put the fox in charge of the henhouse and nobody is looking after the people. We used to talk about getting guarantees for banks and money for them and their systemic importance. What about the systemic importance of the real people on the streets in Ireland who are struggling with this? Rhetoric from the Tánaiste several days in advance of the party conference on cutting taxes is disingenuous in the extreme when the people yearn and need real and tangible solutions for their mortgage difficulties.