Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the ambassador well in his role. We look forward to welcoming him to Mayo, in particular to Achill Island and Ballycroy. He has been very supportive of those communities and done a great deal of work for them in Cleveland.

I cannot let it pass, as Senator Horkan will understand, when Fianna Fáil Senators speak about home help hours. Please. Fianna Fáil cut hundreds of thousands of home help hours. I am glad it has had a conversion on the road to Damascus, but the question of home help hours must be seen in the round. It is a very serious situation and at crisis point now. It was at crisis point in 2011 too, in particular in Mayo where 32,000 hours were cut in one year.

Last week, one of the top companies that administers loans for vulture funds told potential investors that internally they called Ireland the gift that keeps on giving. They are not wrong, as we learned yesterday again with the launch by Ulster Bank of yet another sale of mortgages. Ulster Bank is selling €900 million worth of loans, including loans in respect of 3,200 family homes. Nevertheless, we give those funds charitable status in case they would have to pay any corporation tax. Fine Gael has ushered in the golden age of the vultures. Deputy Noonan told us many years ago that we needed them desperately. We absolutely do not. Why do we not give the discounts the banks are giving to the vulture funds to the 3,200 family homeowners and others? Why are we not reaching deals with them? We would rather reach deals with the vulture funds and give them major haircuts on the loans. For distressed borrowers, it is the age of despair. The people who are supposed to control the vultures and stand up for what is right are instead feeding them. AIB is a State-owned bank but it is writing to customers to threaten them with vultures. I want people to take a moment to think hard about how it feels. The greatest financial investment most people make is their home but then a letter arrives to say that at some point in future, this major investment will be thrown into chaos and uncertainty. It is an awful way to live. Sinn Féin believes our people are better than this. They deserve better than to be at the mercy of an industry that has a taste for misery and distress and feeds off it. I ask the Leader, therefore, to commit his Government to co-operating with Sinn Féin on Deputy Pearse Doherty's No Consent, No Sale Bill. Selling homes and mortgages to vulture funds is not the way forward.