Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to outline what stage the legal services Bill has reached. It has been promised for the past three years but seems to have been sidelined for whatever reason. When will it come before the House?

My primary reason for rising to speak is to ask the Leader to recognise that the Government, last evening, accepted on principle the protection of residential mortgage holders Bill and allowed it to pass Second Stage in the Lower House. That is an important acknowledgement of the work done by Deputy Michael McGrath. My difficulty is with the commitment that the Minister and the Government have given to introduce the legislation in 2015. Due to the urgent nature of this matter and my desire to protect vulnerable mortgage holders I ask the Leader to give a clear commitment and convey a message to Government that 2015 is too late to introduce such legislation. The sale of Irish Nationwide is imminent and Danske Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the ACC Bank are all in the process of exiting the Irish market. What about their customers?

The danger here, which is acknowledged by senior Government figures, is that these vulture capitalists - most of whom are neither European nor American - are buying the loan books. The kernel of the Bill, which was introduced by Deputy Michael McGrath in the Lower House, is that the code of conduct on mortgage arrears currently applied by the Central Bank will also apply to those taken over by these vulture capitalists. They must be protected. Even though the Government accepted the principle of the Bill in the Lower House, it is too dangerous to kick it to touch for another 12 months. That will be too late for many concerned mortgage holders. Many of them are beleaguered and under pressure so they need such protection. As bad as things are at the moment, at least there is some protection under the aegis of the Central Bank. There will be no written guarantee until the Government's proposed legislation is introduced in 12 months' time and passed to ensure that such mortgages are protected. It is an extremely serious issue.

I ask the Leader to comment on how the Water Services (No. 2) Bill 2013 applies to rural water schemes. Many such schemes have not been taken in charge by the local authority, so they appear to be in limbo. Perhaps the Leader could enlighten me about what is available for those schemes for which trustees were established. Hundreds of people have got water from some excellent schemes but they have not reached the final stage whereby the local authority takes charge of them. They are now the responsibility of Irish Water. Unfortunately, those schemes that are three-quarters baked are not currently under the control of a local authority or Irish Water, so that limbo situation should be addressed. Perhaps the Leader could acknowledge the difficulty and tell us where these people stand.