Inniu, beidh Eagraíocht Naomh Uinseann de Pól ag foilsiú tuairisc dá chuid a inseoidh, don chéad uair, go bhfuil breis agus 100,000 duine ag teacht chuig an eagraíocht sin chun tacaíocht a fháil ghnáth chaiteachas cosúil le ola chun an teach a théamh nó bia a chur ar an tábla nó chun chomhneartú don Chéad Chomaoineach nó don Nollaig. Taispeánann seo an deacracht agus na himpleachtaí atá ag polasaithe lochtacha an Rialtais le dhá bhliain anuas.

Last year the number of people who turned to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul exceeded 100,000 for the first time, a figure that has doubled in the past three years. Their stories paint a picture of the real impact of austerity and the policies implemented by the Taoiseach and his Government in recent years. If the Taoiseach reads these stories he will hear of an elderly couple, aged 85 and 82 years, with a life's work behind them, who turned to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul for the first time, simply to be able to heat their home. They were donors to the society in the past but now they have nowhere else to turn. The Taoiseach will hear of the middle-class family with four children living in a comfortable area in Dublin, in which the husband is employed but there is nothing to eat. The reason they have nothing to eat is that they prioritised their mortgage payments in order to keep a roof over their heads. Eventually, when their savings had gone, they hit breaking point and turned to the St. Vincent de Paul. This family would not even register among the 180,000 families who are in mortgage distress, as shown in the latest report, because the family has not yet slipped into arrears. Their situation reflects that of many other thousands of people throughout this State. People are going without food and cutting back on heating and other essentials just to meet their mortgage repayments. One in four mortgages are in arrears, a shocking and alarming figure.

The Taoiseach needs to realise that this is a crisis situation that is out of control. His Government promised to prioritise those in mortgage arrears, but yesterday, two years after that commitment, the Central Bank's chief economist stated that Irish banks are still dragging their heels in regard to mortgage distress. What these families need are real solutions, not more vetoes for banks or platitudes. The Taoiseach needs to understand this. When is the penny going to drop? The banks will not do this on their own; they will not solve the problem, because they are part of the problem. What is needed is proactive implementation of a policy of targeted restructuring of distressed mortgages and, where sustainable, write-downs of those mortgages in order that people can stay in their homes. Will the Taoiseach ensure the banks follow such an approach and will the Government use all the means at its disposal, including the weight of the Central Bank, to ensure such a policy is implemented for many of these people who unfortunately have had to turn to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others?

I read the story in today's newspaper about the couple aged 82 and 85 years. From its different chapters throughout the country I am well aware of the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which does an enormously important job in difficult circumstances. It is true that in these straitened economic times more people have turned to the society; the figures do not lie. However, Deputy Doherty will realise that 40% of our spending is in the area of social protection, the old age pension is €230 per week and the free electricity and fuel allocations are an important contributory factor to the well-being of our senior citizens. There is a great deal of advice available from other agencies such as MABS, where people can discover how they can better budget their resources.

The Deputy also referred to the mortgage situation. We are acutely aware of this; it is the reason it was necessary for the Minister for Finance to make changes in the restructuring of banks and engage with them in a fashion that requires them to get down to business and deal with mortgage arrears, distressed mortgages and the various other schemes. It is clear the Government has set out its own stall in this regard. We do not want to see anybody losing his or her house unless it is absolutely necessary. Comprehensive advice must be provided to people and assistance given to those in mortgage difficulties. I am not satisfied that the banks have moved rapidly enough to deal with this. I am not happy that there was a complete hiatus in having trained personnel to deal with families in mortgage distress, but am happy to note that the banks have now responded and trained people to engage in this area. We have extended the remit of the Cabinet committee dealing with mortgages to deal with banking measures. All of these measures are what the Government can do, working with the banks to ensure they deal conclusively with mortgage distress where applicable.

It is very stressful for families who find that at the end of the week there is very little or nothing left because they cannot restructure their mortgages and meet their requirements. I refer also to the introduction of new measures to deal with debt beyond formal judicial bankruptcy; the insolvency agency will take this up in the coming months. There is the rebalancing of the personal insolvency legislation measures, which will enable the striking of a fairer deal between debtor and creditor, as the Deputy will be aware. There is the introduction of measures to assist families in staying in their homes if at all possible, thereby challenging the banks to live up to their responsibilities in this crisis and to offer a much more expeditious rolling out of their own forbearance programmes.

There are no quick fixes and there is no one-size-fits-all measure that will help in every individual case, but Government is engaging in a proactive and constructive way with the banks to ensure that they sit down and deal with clients who have mortgage distress problems. I am glad to note that the number of cases being concluded is clearly rising, but do not wish to see a situation whereby people are all put on interest-only payments. There needs to be much greater involvement, and the banks were recapitalised to deal with that situation in the first instance.

As the Deputy is aware, as the Government continues to make decisions in the interests of improving the structure of our public finances, the country will become more attractive for continued inward investment.

The Government is particularly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises to create job opportunities. As the Deputy will be aware, we continue to negotiate with the European Central Bank, the Council of Europe and ECOFIN in respect of the decision made on 29 June last year in order that we might change the overall capacity of our economy to grow and prosper and allow people to deal with these problems in a far more realistic fashion.

And now the Government is intent on introducing a vampire tax.