I would like to ask the Leader for a debate on what actions the Government proposes to take in regard to the mortgage crisis. What has characterised the Government in this regard since the general election two years ago has been inaction and indifference. When we first proposed the Family Home Bill in this House in July 2011, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, proclaimed how the code of conduct on mortgage arrears was working exceptionally well and that there was no need for such legislation, and those were his exact words. Following that, we produced the Debt Settlement and Mortgage Resolution Office Bill in October 2011. We then produced the Regulation of Debt Management and Advisors Bill in May 2012 but all we have had from the Government is the Personal Insolvency Act which the Minister hopes will be up and running by July.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh highlighted some of the rises in costs for families, including energy costs and so on. The shambles of the property tax and what is expected of people in terms of valuing their houses is further compounded by the fact that we were able to rush through legislation for a property tax but it has taken us two and a half years to bring in personal insolvency legislation which puts the banks completely in control. Will the Leader ask the Taoiseach if he trusts the banks to deal in an honest and a fair way with the mortgage crisis, which has been going on for so many years? Some 182,000 mortgages are in arrears out of a total of 942,000 mortgages. All we have seen is complete inaction. What is truly lying at the heart-----

Senator MacSharry, without interruption.

What is truly lying at the heart of this problem, and what Senator Barrett so often talks about-----

Has the Senator a question for the Leader?

-----is the back stairs to the Department of Finance, which the banks specifically enjoy. We saw the fruits of that. The Secretary General of the Department admitted to the people that there will be lots of repossessions and that people cannot expect the taxpayer to help them. They certainly cannot expect the Government to help them.

Senator MacSharry, you are way over time.

All we have had is rhetoric, most recently throughout the weekend when the Government said it would deal with this now and finally get to the bottom of this crisis. The crisis is so large that I was two years on the other side of the House talking about. Now I am two years on this side of the House and all we have heard is the usual bluff and bluster from a Government which is in denial. It will satisfy the eurocrats, leave the banks in command and will do nothing for the people.

Senator MacSharry, you are way over time.

We hear again about the Personal Insolvency Act. The banks are in control. We should get Richie Boucher or somebody to come in as Secretary General of the Department. At least then we would be able to ensure that all of the-----

Senator MacSharry, you are way over time.

It has hit a note with the Government.

Senator Leyden, you have spoken already.

Senator MacSharry hit a sensitive note with his point.

I remind Senator MacSharry that-----

The Leader should answer the question. Senator Burke does not have to respond to me.

Senator Burke, without interruption.

Senator Burke was not even a Member of the House when I was calling for the implementation of measures to deal with the mortgage crisis. In the two years he has been here, I have not heard him bring it up.

Is Senator MacSharry afraid of the truth?

Senator MacSharry, can you respect the Chair? Senator Burke, do you have a question for the Leader?

I was just trying to remind Senator MacSharry that he did not seem to have difficulty in trusting the banks a number of years ago when we gave all the guarantees.

Senator Burke was not a Member of the House. He should check the record and he will see I was talking about this issue. It is four years since I brought forward legislation. The Minister was in denial.

Senator MacSharry, please.

The Cathaoirleach should ask Senator Burke to speak through the Chair. Has he a question for the Leader? What is his question? My question was what the Government is doing about the mortgage crisis. We have been asking about it for four years but we are still in denial.

Senator MacSharry, can you please respect the Chair? You were way over time when you spoke and now you are interrupting this speaker. Senator Burke, have you a question for the Leader?

We have no difficulty whatsoever in dealing with the banking crisis and the Minister has set out quite clear criteria to the banks on how to deal with mortgages in distress.

Senator Rónán Mullen raised the surrogacy issue. There is now a High Court judgment. In fairness, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, set out in a memorandum guidelines on dealing with some aspects of surrogacy. People are travelling to places as far away as Ukraine, India and the United States for surrogacy. We need to deal with this. I agree with Senator Mullen that we should have a debate. It is not a matter we should allow to be kicked around for the next 20 years in the way others were left following the judgment in the X case.

No doubt the Minister will deal with this matter in a calculated way to ensure that we put in place the appropriate legislation to deal with this complex and difficult area. There is a High Court judgment. Let us have a debate and look at putting in place the proper structure of legislation to deal with this issue. I ask that the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House for that debate on this area at the earliest possible date.

My colleague on the University benches, Senator Rónán Mullen, is a constant apostle for calm, serious and respectful debate without name-calling. It was, therefore, with a certain amount of surprise, despite the history of these matters, that he described the Marie Stopes Clinic as abortion privateers. I am not 100% sure how that fits into calm, serious and respectful debate, but no doubt it is a predictor for what will happen. The clinic has been going for a long time. It has international respect.

Senator Mullen raised this in the context of Sinn Féin exercising its constitutional and parliamentary rights in the North of Ireland to put a petition. I attended the meeting that was organised there, rather curiously, by the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP. At this tea and bun session, when I counted, there were 16 men and three women present, which I thought was quite interesting, and a letter was flourished from the Reverend Dr. Ian Paisley. I asked a number of questions, including whether this was the Dr. Paisley who had so signally failed to save Ulster from sodomy.

They did not answer the question that is referred to, rather unfortunately, in the letter I also received today from the Supreme Knight of Columbanus, who appears to be completely against allowing this regrettable procedure to take place in circumstances where the young woman has been the victim of rape or incest, or whether what she is carrying is a nerveless, brainless, headless piece of tissue, which is a matter that was referred to in a most dignified and tragic letter by a young woman some years ago. It is obscene for these persons to try to force the situation on them.

Does Senator Norris have a question for the Leader?

I have. Can we have a calm, serious and respectful debate on the issue of abortion?

I agree with my colleagues, including Senator MacSharry, on the question of evictions. It is probably unconstitutional. I am in the curious position of having taken an action against the State where it agreed with all the evidence that I presented but stated it could not grant me relief because of the Christian nature of the State. That is a legal judgment of the High Court, also certified by the Supreme Court, and yet we are throwing people out on the side of the road. We are told that our actions as legislators and as a State must be Christian, but we are firing out old age pensioners and we talk about moral hazard for individuals.

Senator Norris is way over time.

Why are these suspended when it is the banks?

I call Senator Hayden.

I will end on this point, if I may. After I spoke last week on this question of eviction, which I regard as an obscenity, I gather that the Secretary General of the Department of Finance appeared to suggest that there were not enough evictions. I cannot think of anything more half-baked. Apart from the moral issue, if one evicts all of these borrowers - there are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of them - one will destroy the very market one is trying to reflate.

I had been planning on going to the theatre later this week. I gather "King Lear" is an excellent production.

It would be a nice break.

I no longer need bother because I have had my fill of dramatics for one week.

Hear, hear.

I wish to say "Well done" to Senator MacSharry. He has truly missed his vocation.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

I do.

This is not about dramatics.

I am glad that he pointed out one valid piece of information. He said that the mortgages and mortgage distress situation did not happen today or yesterday.

Absolutely, it was four years ago.

It has been going on for a very considerable number of years.

The Senator's track record is that she voted against the legislation and it was defeated by three votes.

Senator Hayden please, without interruption.

I ask Senator MacSharry to bear one thing in mind.

They do not like it.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

I do.

Kick it down the road for another one.

In 2002 there was clear evidence that the housing market was overheating. Senator MacSharry's Government brought in measures-----

I was never in government.

-----that led to ordinary men and women paying ten times the average industrial wage for an ordinary family home. It is incredible to be lectured on mortgage distress by that side of the House.

We both were here at the same time. I was here in the House.

Does the Senator have a question for the Leader?

I again ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Finance to come here to discuss in a calm and a reasoned way the issue of mortgages, mortgage relief and debt.

What about repossessions? What about inviting the Secretary General of the Department?

The Senator has spoken already and I ask him to respect the Chair.

I suppose the officials are all right. The Frankfurt way is going well.

A house in every field and a portfolio of properties for every taxi driver was his party's idea of the Irish home.

There is a serious issue related to the buy-to-let mortgage market. The Minister for Finance has made it clear that he does not see the buy-to-let mortgage market as one that needs to be protected. He has indicated that they should be repossessed. One in every five people live in a buy-to-let property. They live in the rental sector. There could be serious issues for ordinary people and families, and people with children, if we do not handle the matter carefully. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to attend and ask him to specifically address the issue.