Hear, hear.

Is that why the Minister got to her feet a second time?

On a point of order, the Minister was given discretion to speak twice, which is unique. Can she explain the clinical decision with which she has an issue?

I thought the Minister was going to be a bit humble, believe the women and be a bit respectful. Instead, she stands up with this nonsense.

My first question is about Israeli war bonds. The Minister will know that we had Private Members' business about this before. We learned yesterday that the State continued to invest in Israeli war bonds right through the genocide. As our screens were lighting up with men, women and children being slaughtered by Israel, the State still held investments during that genocide. I would like to know how those investments increased last year. We heard that the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, obviously covering …

I find this absolutely outrageous. What did the Minister do in this period? Did he know that the Irish State, using Irish taxpayers' money, was funding a genocide? Israel does not hide behind this. It does not blush about this. It sells and advertises these bonds as supporting the war effort. We all know that it is not a war. We know it is genocide. Before this, regarding the Central Bank's role, one could say that the State was not directly funding it but was just assisting the ability to sell the bonds. This is t…

Exactly. We were asking the Minister how much money ISIF had in war bonds, how much money it was putting on the table and how much money was being invested in the bombs and bullets that were slaughtering children right before our eyes. Children who were queueing up for water were being slaughtered and this State invested money in it. You cannot wash your hands of this. You are the bloody Minister for Finance and an organisation that falls under the remit of your Department is investing in genocide. There are no ifs…

They are war bonds.

I have been dealing with people throughout the State who are mortgage prisoners of vulture funds. They have seen huge interest rates being charged on their mortgages. The ECB has reduced mortgage rates on eight consecutive occasions but there seems to be no let up for those who are mortgage prisoners, and there are almost 100,000 of them. These are mortgages that are now with vulture funds. They are not reducing their rates in any significant way and, indeed, some customers have actually seen their rates increase. …

This is an issue I have raised with the Minister numerous times. Along with the former Minister, Michael McGrath, he was a cheerleader for the selling off of these loans to the vulture funds. He obstructed and blocked a Bill that would have prevented it from happening. All of these individuals are now paying more interest than they would be if they were with a main-street lender, even for performing loans. I would like the Minister to give us a further breakdown. How many of those mortgage prisoners are paying 6% o…

The Minister made the point that he voted against or obstructed the passage of my Bill because he thought it was not in the Government's interest. He is 100% right. He took the side of the banks and the vulture funds. It was not in their interest for that Bill to go through. I will tell the Minister whose interest the Bill was in. It was in the interest of the woman who spoke to me who is charged 6.5% by Mars Capital, or more than 6% by Pepper regarding her mortgage. It was in her interest, in the interest of peopl…

Yes, it is.

Was it right for those people?

Was it right for those people?

Was it right for the person who is being charged 7%?

I have raised this issue with the Minister time and time again and I will continue raising it because people are, to use that phrase again, being ripped off. There is no doubt about it. It is not good enough that the Government is doing nothing about it. Insurance companies are boasting profit margins far and above the European average, far and above what they said they would target if they got the reforms that were passed through these Houses. I see a Government that is impotent in the face of this here and people…

The response of the Minister of State is disappointing. Until the problem is diagnosed, we are not going to get a solution. I have said this before. It is not just the Minister of State. It must be the Department because his predecessors have done the same thing. That is cheerleading for the industry. The industry is making profits that are way above the norm. Motor insurance is up 10% since the start of the year. Our premiums are nearly double the European average. The profits the insurance companies are making ar…

The Minister of State can splice and dice this any way. Everybody out there knows the cost of insurance is going up. The alliance is saying it. The reforms have been pocketed by the industry. Let us look at Liberty Insurance. Its profits are at 13%. This industry came before the House of the Oireachtas. It begged us to do the reforms. We put it to insurance companies and asked what they would target and whether they would pass it on. The industry said it would, euro for euro, and that it would only target 5%. It is…

How come they are earning more than twice what they told us they would target if we brought in the reforms? The reason is that they have pocketed all the reforms-----

-----pushed up the premiums and the Government is doing nothing but cheerleading in its speaking notes.