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THE DÁIL WAS suspended for five minutes today after a row erupted between Communications Minister Alex White and Fianna Fáil deputy Seán Fleming.
White was answering Leaders’ Questions on behalf of Tánaiste Joan Burton when the discussion turned to the banks’ failure to reduce variable mortgage rates.
Fleming asked White if the government was “powerless when it comes to the banks” or simply “choosing to do nothing”.
He accused White of “reading a script” and failing to address the issue.
I thought I would get a very good, intelligent answer from you … Minister, I’m afraid to say, you actually sounded like a ventriloquist’s dummy today.
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White hit back at Fleming, saying he is “well aware that there is no statutory power to direct a deduction in rates”.
Things escalated quickly with back-and-forth on both sides.
Eventually Leas Ceann Comhairle Michael Kitt suspended the house when Fleming refused to sit down.
Earlier today, both Enda Kenny and Joan Burton said banks should pass on low ECB interest rates to their customers.
Burton said she’s “never known bankers to be particularly grateful people”, saying they may have forgotten that taxpayers’ money recapitalised them.
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@Dan The Man: Just because you didn’t make it very far in life, doesn’t mean others can’t either. You just assume that anyone with something decent was just given to them. Is that your coping mechanism because you can’t admit there is people who work harder than you and make better decisions?
@John Paul: well that’s one way to look at it, but you can see how such shows might really grate on those that haven’t been able to afford a house. I am in fact lucky enough to have purchased a house I can afford but I do wonder when we might see a tent or a temporary type of house on the show. Doesn’t fit the narrative though.
Hugh Wallace makes me nauseas ‘Hooooooome of the year’… while the majority of us hard working people can’t even afford the circular red pillow to put in our ‘favourite place’. Yup rub it in please Man just a little bit more.
@J B: No fair enough JB and thank you for that x You must be so proud of your children that’s amazing x You’re right in fairness, I need to get over my resentments it’s just hard because genuinely worked so hard and lost everything. There I go again with the self pity!! Sorry JB and thanks again for your reply x
@Donna Fallon: As all the evidence shows, Irish people have never been better off financially. Look at car sales, holidays etc. There are always people who get left behind or endure bad circumstances etc but they are definitely not the majority
@Brian M: Yup there certainly are people who get left behind I agree but our obsession with property porn in this Country is quite unsettling. I personally find it distasteful. Just an opinion.
Love the show and the judges. It is amazing what people can do on very little as in the converted shop in Tipperary. Gorgeous home full of personality.
@Suzanne Phelan: I prefer those to the ones that obviously just had more money than taste thrown into them, everything to the max size, but minimal and sterile at the same time.
I blame Duncan Stewart and his show “our house” with rté which started in the mid 90s for the start of the property boom. Just looat the graph 1996 / 2008 \ 2014 / 2025
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