There is widespread public concern and anger at the manner in which a family was evicted from its home near Strokestown in County Roscommon last week. The video footage of the incident is shocking, to say the least. It shows a private security firm being given free rein to do as it pleased in evicting a family from its home. It is appalling that any family would be subjected to the type of treatment visited on this family last Tuesday. It was an ordeal of thuggery inflicted by a group of men acting on behalf of a financial institution while gardaí watched. That is of significant concern to right-thinking people. What happened in County Roscommon was a disgrace and it was unjustified. It brought to mind scenes from our past when families were evicted and thrown onto the side of the road.

The shocking reality is that those undertaking this type of act on behalf of banks and vulture funds are not authorised or regulated and are not covered by the Private Security Services Act. That was confirmed to my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, by the Private Security Authority. It is time for a policy shift away from satisfying the demands of banks and towards supporting families and communities. Pressure must be brought to bear on the financial institutions using these outfits to turf people out of their homes. They cannot simply shrug their shoulders and pass this off and neither can the Taoiseach. It is extraordinary that we expect door staff or shop security staff to be regulated and comply with the highest standards but that does not apply to these individuals. It is extraordinary that a person fitting a lock to a front door must be regulated but these henchmen and enforcers for the banks can ram down an elderly citizen's door and drag him from his home by the ears without regulation, authorisation or oversight.

The lack of accountability is shocking. Those who are enforcing evictions and acting in a violent and abusive way need to be held to account. There is an urgent need for regulation in this area and it can be done quickly by amending the Private Security Services Act by adding a new category of security personnel to come within the remit of the Act and the scope of the Private Security Authority. This morning my colleague Deputy Ó Laoghaire published legislation to achieve this and it needs to be achieved now. We need to ensure we will not see a repeat of the incidents and nonsense we saw on Frederick Street in Dublin in September where people were wearing balaclavas, or the incidents in Roscommon last week and those that followed it. Will the Taoiseach support the legislation we have published today to ensure these bank enforcers can no longer operate without oversight, authority and regulation which have not applied heretofore?

We all need to be careful in this House not to say too much about individual cases without knowing the facts. If the Deputy read the newspapers today and followed the coverage of the story, he would realise the facts behind this individual case seem to be about much more than an elderly farm family being evicted from their farm. The case involves many years of debts and arrears, VAT fraud, tax evasion and many other things. Therefore, we should be careful not to assume that in any individual case there are no reasons behind it.

The Taoiseach to continue, without interruption, please.

To answer the Deputy's question, as matters stand, under the Private Security Services Act 2004, anybody who engages in private security work is obliged to comply with the law and behave in a lawful manner. While doormen, those who fit alarms and provide security at events are required to be regulated by the Private Security Authority, those executing eviction orders are not. It is perhaps the case that when the law was enacted by the Oireachtas in 2004, that was overlooked. We accept that it may well be wise and a good idea to amend the law to cover the regulation of security agents by the Private Security Authority. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, said as much yesterday and will do some work on that issue. If it is the right thing to do, as I believe it is, we will regulate those who are providing security services, or whatever the correct term for them is.

It is important to point out that the eviction order was executed following a High Court hearing. Nobody likes to see anyone being evicted in any circumstance. Nobody wants to see it happening, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. However, the High Court does not issue eviction orders lightly. In Ireland 116,000 mortgages have been restructured. Some 116,000 people have sought help and had their mortgages restructured, yet only 400 eviction orders have been executed in the last year. Some 100,000 mortgages were restructured and only 400 eviction orders were executed last year. The High Court has a very high barrier in allowing eviction orders to be issued. I refer to repossession orders in the first place and eviction orders thereafter. The court does not issue them lightly. It is important that we bear that in mind because we live in a society in which many who wish to buy a home struggle to obtain a mortgage. Many who have a home make mortgage repayments at higher rates than those in other countries. We need to bear in mind the facts beyond that. Some 100,000 people have had their mortgages restructured, while there were just 400 eviction orders. The High Court does not issue eviction orders lightly, nor are they executed lightly.

Did the Taoiseach watch the video of the eviction?

The Taoiseach talks about the facts. Last week he responded that he had watched the video of me questioning some of the bankers. Perhaps he might confirm that he watched the video of the bank enforcers and how they behaved with the family in question. No family, regardless of circumstances, should be treated in this way. It is not the Revenue Commissioners that are evicting families.

That banks' enforcers, these thugs - I call them thugs - can enter somebody's property, cut down locks, break down doors, take somebody out by their ears, kick somebody on the ground and push them out of their own home and property while gardaí watch on is not acceptable. We have raised this issue with the Taoiseach countless times. It is not just bank enforcers who are unregulated. We have rent receivers who are unregulated. Why are they doing this and why are the public so outraged? I commend the public for standing up in solidarity with the family and people facing eviction and against thuggish behaviour we saw last Tuesday. Why are they doing this? It is because the Government has completely abandoned these communities. It has rolled out the red carpet for the vulture funds. It allows thousands of sales of restructured performing mortgages to take place to vulture funds outside the code of conduct of the Central Bank. Time and again it has allowed the banks to ride roughshod over ordinary people.

The Taoiseach to respond.

Will the Taoiseach ensure this is the last time unauthorised and unregulated bank henchmen will enter property and behave in the despicable way we saw in Roscommon last Tuesday?

I agree with the Deputy that we need proper regulation in this area, as the Minister for Justice and Equality acknowledged yesterday. He has established an interdepartmental group to examine the issue, with a view to it reporting to him in January, which is only in a few weeks' time. As I said, I agree that we need regulation in this area. I also agree that nobody ever wants to see people evicted from their homes, particularly at Christmas time. Where evictions occur, they should only ever happen in rare cases after the court has heard both sides of the story and issued first a repossession order and thereafter an eviction order, as I understand happened in this case.

I am very concerned that the Deputy has had nothing to say about what happened afterwards, when 20 or 30 people arrived in a cattle truck and armed with baseball bats. They injured three or four other people, set cars alight and caused an animal to be shot dead. I find it very concerning that the Deputy has nothing to say about this. He has made two contributions and not condemned-----