I have long been a supporter of the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and the work he is doing to get house building back on the rails and people into housing. During the discussions on the programme for Government I asked if the Government would contact the Central Bank with a view to having rent paid recognised for the purposes of mortgage applications.

As the Leader knows, I never get involved in local politics but this issue has national implications, so it suits my national political profile. I met a young couple at the weekend who, in eight years, spent €110,000 renting an apartment. Out of a middle-of-the-road salary, €110,000 over eight years did not leave much room for saving money. From what I understand, they are now in a position where they are about to lose their accommodation and they would like to buy. The help to buy scheme which the Minister brought in was helpful, although it managed to push up prices in Dublin by €20,000 within days of it being announced. This couple has no savings worth talking about. They do not want to buy a big elaborate place; all they want is a nice little one bedroom apartment which would cost about €230,000 in south Dublin. The banks are telling them they can have 75% of a mortgage. A couple, which has shown that it is capable of paying out €110,000 over a period of eight years, should be considered for a 100% mortgage. I do not see anything wrong with that. I do not see it as an inflationary or a bubble-creating exercise. I believe it is recognition that they have the money to pay.

I ask that we have a debate on how the banks are treating people. This Government has gone a long way in trying to solve the housing problem, and I am not for one minute throwing bouquets at anyone nor am I trying to get involved in things that are going on in Fine Gael because the Minister for Social Protection has done a great job as has the Minister for Justice and Equality and anyone else who is in the ring. The truth is that we should be able to provide homes for these people who have shown they have a track record of being able to repay the value of a mortgage up to around €300,000. I would appreciate hearing the Leader's views on it and if he thinks it is worth bringing the Minister in. I am not 100% certain whether it is the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government who has responsibility for it, although it is probably both.

Like my colleague, I welcome the reduction in the unemployment figures which have now fallen to 6.8%, having been as high as over 15% when the leader of the Opposition's party was in power. The good news is that the majority of new jobs are outside Dublin and that the regions are starting to feel the recovery. Employment has grown in all sectors of the economy, and what is interesting is that the biggest growth is in the construction industry, so we are getting our builders back to work and are starting to impact on the shortage of houses and the shortage of office space. Obviously, from the day a shovel is put in the ground to the day one can see the finished product is quite a number of months, or sometimes a year or more, but this is a sure sign that this problem is being addressed. It is not quick enough for those who find themselves without a home and the Government and the Minister, in particular, are doing everything they can to expedite the provision of accommodation.

We now have the resources to start repairing our society and the economy is only useful to us in so far as it supports our communities, our families and our friends. We need these resources because as our population continues to grow, and nowhere more so than in Fingal, we need new schools, new health facilities and, as I mentioned in the past few days, a hospital for Swords, but the really good news, as my colleague has alluded to, is that it is rapidly becoming a jobseekers' market and the quality of the jobs and conditions going with them should improve. That is not to say there will not still be individuals who may seek to exploit employees and certainly the Minister and her Department are addressing this issue in a very aggressive fashion and will be come back to us with solutions. Therefore, I reject out of hand the idea of the Senator that this Minister does not have workers' welfare to the fore in her mind.