The negative equity generation has fared very poorly under the Government which refuses to make child care affordable, while reducing child benefit. It forces people to pay property tax on their debts, while claiming it is a tax on wealth. It taxes on the double those who have become accidental landlords. It denies families the right to bid on their own mortgages, while selling these mortgages to US-based vulture funds. To date, the insolvency service has processed only approximately 50 cases because the Government gave the banks a veto over all proceedings. The result is that over 175,000 mortgages are in arrears. For three years the Government has allowed the banks to ride roughshod over these individuals and families. The only thing it has done is set targets for the banks to make offers of “sustainable” restructures, but it has let the banks define “sustainable”.

In advance of the hearings of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform this week, the banks have submitted their latest figures to the end of the year for these so-called sustainable restructures. The good news is that they have hit the Government’s targets. The bad news concerns how they have done so. As of 1 January, approximately 57,000 offers had been made, of which a total of 52,000 do not include any financial concession from the banks whatsoever, in spite of the people making €7.5 billion available to them to deal with the mortgage crisis. Approximately 18,000 of the offers made will increase the amount the mortgage holders will pay to the banks over the course of the mortgages. Approximately 5,000 are so-called voluntary surrenders. As of 1 January, approximately 22,000 of these so-called offers of sustainable restructures were the subject of legal proceedings. That figure will have increased significantly since 1 January. I recall Fine Gael stating during the general election campaign that it would help the negative equity generation. Instead it has abandoned it. It has hiked people's taxes to pay for the sins of the bankers, while allowing the banks to squeeze those in mortgage arrears for every cent they have. When they do not have any more, they go into arrears and the Government lets the banks do as they please. Is the Taoiseach satisfied with these targets, with how the banks have hit them and that 22,000 cases of legal proceedings count as sustainable offers of mortgage restructuring?

No, I am not happy that people are still in mortgage distress because of the catastrophic economic situation and I will not be happy until everybody has received a workable and practical offer that is not just related to interest-only repayments. The total number of permanent restructures, those that work in a sustainable way, has increased to approximately 54,000 accounts. Term extensions and arrears capitalisations are the dominant permanent restructure type. They comprise approximately 60% of the total. There has been an increase in the number of split mortgages to over 7,100 from 2,500 at the end of August last. This includes split mortgages on a trial basis, pending completion of a short period of successful payments. The targets have been set by the Government and the Central Bank for the banks to achieve. It is down to the relationship between the borrower and the lender and how they avail of the suite of opportunities available to work out a solution in each individual case.

The Deputy commented that we had said we would help those in negative equity. What should we do, except strive to make the economy more competitive, productive and strong? There is growth in the economy. We have managed to pull the country back from an economic abyss. We created 61,000 jobs last year. Interest rates have fallen from 15% to less than 3%. The National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, can go back into the international bond markets with a sense of confidence and be in a position to raise finance to meet most of its financial requirements in 2015. That helps to create the opportunity for an increase in house valuations and property prices again, but it is uneven. There is pressure to have significant numbers of houses built in the greater Dublin area and other cities and so on. The rise in property values and prices has not touched all parts of the country. When the Deputy asks me to help those in negative equity, the best answer is that we rectify the public finances and get people working. That is what stimulates confidence, growth and jobs in the economy and prosperity.

Were we to continue in the position in which we found the country, we would be paying back another €3.1 billion on the promissory notes today. That would give cause for raising a variety of questions here, I should think.

Bond yields are of no interest to the people who are fighting to save their houses. The problem lies in the Taoiseach's answer. He stated that recapitalisation of arrears and term extensions account for 60% of the offers made to date. Recapitalisation of arrears and term extensions are not sustainable for people who have too much debt. Both of those so-called solutions increase the total payments made over the lifetime of a mortgage. He asked what does he do besides creating jobs. It is great that the jobs figure is rising. I will tell him what this Government needs to do for people who are in mortgage arrears. It needs to focus not just on the quantity of offers made but also on the quality of those offers and the consistency of offers across lenders. Last week the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform met representatives of organisations supporting mortgage holders. These are the people who are on the ground helping mortgage holders. They stated that providing figures for targets approved is counterproductive because the focus is on the target and, therefore, not on the individual. Representatives made the following observations:

Over 3,000 people contacted FLAC last year through our centres and telephone lines in utter frustration at the lack of professionalism in the way they were being dealt with...

The helpline has handled 11,000 calls since its establishment. Of those calls, approximately one half was made after the people had already received a final offer from their lender and two thirds of those were sale or repossession. That was the only offer on the table...

We have a crazy situation, whereby it is alleged that repossessions take place only as a last resort but there is no front-end supervision or monitoring and no rules to ensure that is the case... It is like the Gaza Strip. Individual lenders can do anything... The Central Bank confirmed to us in July that it does not have the power to compel lenders to offer specific products... The only language that these guys understand is legislation. The only thing that is going to work is firm, strict, unambiguous and crystal clear legislation.

In light of the overwhelming evidence for the benefits of a sustainable set of mandated solutions for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of men and women in terms of ensuring consistency, quality and fairness, will the Taoiseach consider introducing legislation that mandates a single set of solutions for mortgage holders?

That is one-size-fits-all, and that does not work because everybody's circumstance is different.

It does not work for the bondholders.

It is when one sits down with the people involved that one discovers their circumstances differ. In regard to the engagement between the consumers and the lenders which led to the permanent restructuring of 51,188 mortgages, an increase of 6,011 accounts in the last quarter of 2013, does Deputy Donnelly accept they were clear, consistent and flexible because they arrived at a solution?

Not at all.

The Deputy is not happy with the fact that almost 51,000 permanent mortgage restructures were arrived at between people who borrowed and lenders who lent.

No, not remotely.

He does not believe that is the way things should go. He wants a situation in which one size is assumed to fit everybody, which clearly is not the case. If that is what he suggests, he is very much out of touch. The legislation to which he referred is crystal clear. The targets have been set and they are being achieved.

Where are the mortgage-to-rent arrangements?

The sustainable solutions are for the men and women who have borrowed money to live in their houses and are happy to deal with the lender in the first instance.

They are not happy.

There has been a significant rise in split mortgages, from 2,500 in August to 6,200 by the end of December. That means 4,000 people have agreed a split mortgage with their lenders. The number of mortgage accounts in arrears of longer than 90 days has fallen from 81,000 to 79,000. That decrease is not as much as we would like, but it is there.

Smoke and mirrors.

These are facts. They are crystal clear and they arise because of the conclusions reached between borrowers and lenders.

The Taoiseach is being misled.

Temporary restructuring arrangements are also continuing to fall. The Central Bank's quarterly mortgage arrears statistics, as opposed to the Department of Finance's monthly figures, show a welcome decline in all arrears, whether for primary dwellings or buy-to-let properties. Deputy Donnelly may not want to accept those facts, but they are facts. The most difficult to accept are those who are longer in arrears. I welcome the decline in the number of primary home mortgages that are more than 90 days in arrears. It is the first time the figure has begun to fall since 2009, when the Central Bank first published these data.

That is because of legal proceedings.

There is a solution to everybody's individual problems. They are not all the same. Circumstances of geography, family, debt and property with debts are all different. There is a solution to all of them, but working out the solution requires borrowers and lenders to sit down together.

And capital for the banks.

The suite of opportunities that is now laid out can result in many more people arriving at a solution. There are people who do not want to engage with lenders in the first place. That only makes the situation worse because if a solution is to be found, it will take two to work it out. The task before the Government and the facilities available to the Government, the Central Bank and the banks - the finance committee can help on this - is to work out sustainable solutions for everybody so that, as the economy improves and negative equity declines, those who have felt this distress for quite a long time can have it removed and go back into the economy to play their part as the country develops.

Who caused the negative equity?