Brendan Burgess: What the new Finance Minister must do to help mortgage holders

The Central Bank has washed its hands of many mortgage holders. The new Minister for Finance must now step into the breach.

Before the current coalition came into power, Michael McGrath was the main opposition spokesman on finance and he campaigned successfully to highlight the very high mortgage rates in Ireland. 

He proposed measures to boost competition among lenders, including banning lenders from discriminating between new and existing customers. Now, that he has his hands on the steering wheel as Minister for Finance, it is time for him to implement major changes.