Yesterday was a very bad day for tens of thousands of families and businesses that need breathing space in respect of their mortgages. The announcement that mortgage breaks will come to an end after this week has caused a great deal of anxiety and stress. These mortgage breaks gave homeowners and businesses some relief as the economic effects of the emergency and public health restrictions bit hard. Nobody expected the mortgage breaks to go on forever but they should certainly have been maintained for as long as the pandemic continued. In other countries, mortgage holders have been given breaks of nine months or even a year but that is not the case here. Here, mortgage holders got a break of three months followed by an extension lasting a further three months.

Yesterday, we learnt that the banks will return to business as usual but it is not a case of business as usual for many families and businesses. There are families and businesses that will simply not be able to return to repaying their mortgages normally. Leaving mortgage holders to go it alone and relying on the sympathy of the banks to deal with individual cases is, frankly, unacceptable.

Yesterday's meeting between senior Government Ministers and the banks was a facade. There was no real intent on the part of the Government to reach a solution that would help mortgage holders. All of this is happening at a time when the cosy connections between the Government and the financial sector are once again on show. We have learnt that the former Minister of State, Senator Michael D'Arcy, is leaving the Seanad to be appointed as CEO of a financial lobbying group. In summary, all of this means that there will be no relief for struggling mortgage holders but a big job for a former Minister of State. What does this say to the families and businesses that were relying on the Government to stand up for them and to go to bat for them? This is the second former Minister of State at the Department of Finance to go through the revolving door from the Government into the world of high finance. In fact, during yesterday's meeting, Ministers from the Taoiseach's Government sat on one side of the table while a former Minister of State at the Department of Finance sat on the other side representing the banks.

The Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, has warmly welcomed Senator D'Arcy's new job. He said that he understands why, after 20 years in public life, the Senator might wish to start a new chapter in his life. He said that he will always be welcome should he decide to run for election again. He went on to say that his new employers are fortunate to recruit someone of his calibre.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, another of the Taoiseach's colleagues in government, said something different. He said that he has concerns about all of this and that he has shared those concerns with the Taoiseach. We know that the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, has certainly had concerns about this revolving door. Over the last five years, it has approached the Government to seek changes to legislation that would give it the power to investigate and prosecute Ministers who do not adhere to the rules on cooling-off periods before moving to jobs with lobbying groups. SIPO's approaches in this regard have been consistently ignored by the Government. One has to wonder why.

The Tánaiste has one point of view of the appointment. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has a different point of view. He says he has concerns and that he has shared these concerns with the Taoiseach. Will the Taoiseach set out for us his position on this matter? Does the Taoiseach share the concerns of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan? If he does, what are those concerns? What action, as Head of Government, does the Taoiseach propose to take on this matter?

There are two substantive issues contained within the question that the Deputy put. In the first instance, I want to say that I fully understand the anxiety and stress that many individual mortgage holders, many people with personal loans and many small and medium-sized enterprises feel in terms of the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on their capacity to repay loans and on the general economic situation. It has to be said that the payment breaks were invaluable to thousands of people in respect of those breaks over six months. Irish SMEs in particular had the highest share of loan repayment breaks up to September. What is interesting is that quite a majority of people were in a position to return to normal repayments after the initial three-month payment break. Elements of Ireland's payment break system compare favourably to other countries in some aspects, in particular the length of the payment break, the wide-ranging nature of the payment break and its uniformity across the system. That is not the same in other European countries.

The meeting yesterday was not a facade. It was a genuine engagement, as there has been continuing genuine engagements between the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, and the Tánaiste with the banks in terms of ensuring that people are treated fairly and seriously in a sensitive and sensible way. Again, it is important to point out that the 30 September deadline refers to new applications for payment breaks after that date. It is a regulatory application deadline set down by the European Banking Authority. That is the key point in respect of that. It is not the cliff edge, as has been presented in terms of various presentations. There are various protections for consumers and people in mortgage arrears or in difficulties with their loans. Those protections will continue. Government will continue to engage with the banking system to ensure a sensitive and sympathetic approach is adopted. People will obviously have to continue to engage. The next phase is individually tailored approaches to individual loans with a view to providing alternative solutions and proposals for those borrowers in different situations, such as interest-only payments or different approaches that can be adopted by the banks.

In respect of the former Minister of State, Senator Michael D'Arcy, I believe there should be an effective cooling-off period. I am not happy, or in any way comfortable, with people who have been in office taking up positions, particularly in the area they had jurisdiction over or responsibility for, immediately after or within months of having left office. I believe the legislation should be reviewed. Government agreed this morning that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will initiate a review of the standards in public office legislation in that respect.

More widely, I have long been concerned at the fact that parties and movements can raise foreign donations to an extraordinary amount. I think that should be examined by the Standards in Public Office Commission. Deputy McDonald's party has raised $15 million over the years in the United States. I worry about that. That money has been raised from big vested interests, from construction and financial elites, in the United States with which Deputy McDonald seems to have no difficulty. Referendums have been influenced by large amounts of money the origins of which we do not know. That is a more fundamental area to our democracy. Some people have funded projects, including commemorative projects celebrating 1916 and so on. My understanding is that one particular project - I am open to correction and Deputy McDonald might correct me - was funded by loans from abroad but there was a political agenda attached to that as well.

I would favour a review and reform of the SIPO legislation. Any cooling-off period should have the force of law and sanctions and penalties attached to it. That review is on the way by the Government now.

Tea and sympathy for mortgage holders is of no use to them. Of course, some will be in a position to return to full payment of their mortgage sum but many others will not. The question is why the mortgage breaks were stopped for families and businesses that still require them at a time when we are still in the grip of a public emergency, when additional restrictions have been placed on Dublin and Donegal, and when there is the very real prospect that will happen elsewhere throughout the country. That is the issue. The Government left this matter until the eleventh hour and demonstrated no serious intent to secure a continuation of those very necessary and invaluable, as the Taoiseach called them, arrangements for mortgage holders.

My colleagues, Deputies Pearse Doherty and Mairéad Farrell, have prepared legislation that will be published today in respect of reform of SIPO powers, particularly in terms of section 22, and allowing SIPO to investigate and make concrete sanctions against former Ministers or Ministers of State such as Senator D'Arcy, who has moved through that revolving door from politics to lobbying. The Taoiseach should remember that last week, Senator D'Arcy was on his feet in the Seanad, addressing issues very close to the financial services industry and of great interest to investment managers. This week, we learned that he is moving, changing and going to be a CEO for one of these organisations.

I am glad the Taoiseach has agreed the law needs to be changed. We do not need a lengthy review; we need this change to happen quickly. We are happy to provide the legislation and I hope the Government will support it.

It does need a wide review, not just of this specific issue, which needs to be dealt with, but also of the influence of foreign money on Irish politics. That is something that needs more rigorous inquiry in this country than has been the case to date. I have been through a number of referendums. That has been a concern for me and it continues to be a concern.

It is also a concern that projects, organised by political parties but separate from them, seem to be funded by American money, with a political agenda but, on the face of it, circumventing SIPO guidelines. That is something the Deputy needs to address. She might correct me if I am wrong but that seems to have been the case for the alternative commemoration to the national commemoration of 1916, and the agenda that Sinn Féin represents of the continuing link from 1916 to the war in the North, the conflict and the murder and mayhem that ensued and that the party continues to endorse.

These are very serious political issues, and while the Deputy may not think so, I do. It is not one rule for one group of politicians and a separate rule for others. I accept there has to be a cooling-off period. I do not approve of a former Minister of State going into a post that he had responsibility for as an officeholder. Nevertheless, the other issues I referred to also need to be faced up to once and for all and not fudged continually.