Ministers should be given more powers to help people in financial difficulty because of the coronavirus.
That’s according a number of Independent TDs including Sligo/Leitrim’s Marian Harkin and Roscommon/East Galway’s Michael Fitzmaurice as emergency legislation is discussed in the Dail this evening.
The Independent group is calling for the Minister for Finance to be given the power to postpone the payment of any mortgages, loan, rents, local authority rates or other debt for a period of three months.
They say that as a large number of people are being laid off work, they will not be able to keep up with payments.
And they say there’s a need for banks and other financial institutions — whom the public bailed out 10 years ago — to engage with people now caught in the crossfire of the coronavirus.
Sligo/Leitrim TD Marian Harkin outlines the details:
