Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome this important legislation and commend the Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, on his impressive work rate in bringing it forward. Some days ago in this Chamber, Deputy Micheál Martin sneered at the Taoiseach's suggestion that he and his Ministers are seeking to clean up the mess created by Fianna Fáil in government. This Bill is another chapter in our efforts, since coming into government some 18 months ago, to undo the damage done by the previous Administration. The latter failed completely to address the situation whereby people seeking to enter bankruptcy or being forced into bankruptcy faced an extremely punitive discharge period of 12 years. Moreover, the vast majority of those now facing severe financial difficulty are in that position because the last Government utterly failed them. I note there is no representative of the main Opposition parties in the Chamber at this time.

The previous speaker suggested there could or should be some type of panacea for the difficulties confronting people as a consequence of unsustainable debt. There was never any suggestion from Government that this legislation would solve everybody's problems or even provide a complete solution for any individual. What it will do is provide a starting process whereby people can begin to normalise their relationships with the institutions and businesses to which they owe money. In recent years we have seen a significant departure in terms of how banks deal with people who fall into difficulties. Several bank managers have pointed out to me that negotiating power has been removed from local banks. This was done because an unfair degree of blame was assigned locally for the excessive lending that took place. We still have a very strong network of local staff and managers. The banks should be encouraged to incentivise local managers to sell pensions and insurance policies, for example. These people have a history and relationship with their customers which should allow them to negotiate in a productive manner. Staff in branches throughout the country are willing to examine matters in a fair and educated way. One of the main aspirations of the Bill is to differentiate between those who cannot pay and those who will not pay. That knowledge already exists within the bank network.

In regard to debt relief notices, Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett very much misrepresented the situation in his references to an income of €60. Many people in the country, even those who are working and couples that have two salaries coming in, could easily arrive at a situation where they are left with a disposable income of €60 after paying for utilities and other commitments. It is not as restrictive as it would appear. I am sure colleagues would agree that a significant number of those who go to public representatives in serious distress have loans of less than €20,000. A loan is not onerous by virtue of its amount; it is onerous by virtue of whether the person concerned can afford to repay it. The new arrangements will offer relief to a significant number of those in debt. I appeal to the banks to engage proactively in the process. We all have a job to do in encouraging people to participate in the debt relief procedure.

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