It is easy to understand today the reason the Taoiseach set up an Economic Management Council and did not believe it was appropriate to bring any of the Cabinet in on his budgetary discussions. A Cabinet meeting was held yesterday and today we all learn from the Irish Independent the full make-up of the property tax the Government is proposing to introduce next week. That is remarkable because for the past few weeks it has kept that information tight, yet after one meeting, with 16 people around the table, the leaks begin again. Prior to the budget and the Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas discussing the measures in the budget we are able to read that information in the Irish Independent thanks to a Cabinet member who leaked the full details of the property tax to the media. We have one Cabinet meeting and the following morning we can read the details in the Irish Independent. It is easy to understand why the Taoiseach does not trust 12 of his Ministers in terms of giving them any information because they will leak all of it.

Is the Senator saying the cuckoo is out of the nest?

The Senator might be interested to hear that my party has put forward an alternative budget which shows how we could raise the €3.5 billion through cuts and tax increases-----

Without affecting anyone.

-----without imposing a property tax on a group of people. Almost one quarter of residential mortgages are now in arrears.

We have had the banks raise variable interest rates arbitrarily and the Irish League of Credit Unions stated that 1.8 million people have less than €100 in disposable income after their bills are paid. How does the Government expect people to be able to pay property tax? Will the Leader tell us where are the mortgage resolution measures that were supposed to be given to the Central Bank on 30 September this year? These were to help those not in severe mortgage difficulties but those who are about to go over the cliff. Since then, AIB, which is a covered institution and effectively fully owned by the taxpayer, Bank of Ireland, which is still a covered institution have and ICS Mortgages have increased their variable interest rates by 0.5% so that the standard variable rate now stands at just short of 4.6%. The Personal Insolvency Bill is not the game changer; it is the nuclear button where people must give up everything they own, including their houses, and it does not resolve the mortgage crisis. In the absence of the Government bringing forward any mortgage resolution measures, I say to people to pay the banks what they can afford and no more. People have had four years of paying the banks despite interest rate increases. The Government has failed miserably to bring forward any solution to those struggling and living just to pay their mortgage repayments to the banks. The banks must come forward with proper solutions, such as extending mortgage terms and zeroisation of interest, and not just moratoriums that will pile on the interest at the end of the term. People should be allowed to live a bit and have a life. Members of the public should take a stand and say that this is what they can afford to pay and that is it.

Governments must come up with something. I have a high regard for the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes. I listened to them but I get the impression the Government, like others and like the previous one to a degree, are being led by the nose by the banks. The people are being screwed. Where are the mortgage resolution measures that were supposed to be granted to the Central Bank on 30 September? Where are the products the banks are supposed to be releasing to people not yet in arrears but who will be in arrears because the Government will introduce a property tax costing normal Irish mortgage payers hundreds of euro per year?