Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the tracker mortgages, I am the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. There are four Senators on the committee; Senators Conway-Walsh, O'Donnell, Quirke and myself. The committee has done great work in the last number of weeks, particularly in exposing this issue and allowing people to come in and tell their personal stories. While I accept the point that committees do their own work and that we should let them get on with it, equally we have had Statements in this Chamber on everything from flood prevention to Catalonia to the Irish language. We should ask the Leader to arrange Statements on the tracker mortgage issue to allow the wider Seanad membership to contribute. We can make statements and ask questions of the Minister because it is a scandal. I am not going to go over the points that other Senators have made. People have lost their homes and their lives. Thousands of people have been affected. The banks are saying that everything is fine and that it will all be sorted. I believe 40 out of 3,500 have been sorted with Ulster Bank. There is still a lot of work to be done. It would be timely if the Leader could arrange for the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform to attend the House so that we can have a debate about this issue, which is so important for so many people.