Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

That has to be done if we are to ensure our District Courts run properly. Generally, the county council lists are the last to be done and this is an area in which a good deal of revenue might be collected. I appreciate the spirit of the legislation, which is excellent, but fundamentally we are going to have to consider setting up separate family law courts because they are taking up far too much of the court's time.

I cannot omit saying that this has given the State a smooth and effective manner for dealing with people who fail to or cannot pay their fines. Our civil law system is not as good and for the Joe Soap who is owed money by an individual, it has not improved. I note that the Minister said in his speech that he was going to look at the whole area of civil debt collection again. This is long overdue and I hope he will do this. Recently, it was stated that NAMA would be empowered to investigate the circumstances of builders living in palatial homes, with ten SUVs, staff,.swimming pools, etc., whereas those builders not in NAMA can owe people too. Ordinary subcontractors get the same old excuse from such people every day to the effect that they, the creditors, are owed the money by the company, not the individual builder. This situation must be looked at because these people have no NAMA and no way of recovering their debts since our system does not have teeth.

Even if we were to impose a system such as this, it would be much better. It is interesting that the Bill indicates there will be recovery orders authorising a receiver - an approved person - to collect the money. Will this be a sheriff or a different person? I note from the Minister's speech that this will be a similar role to that of sheriff's collection. However, I rang the sheriff's office recently and asked exactly what it did. I did not get a satisfactory answer and I believe this is something that needs to be looked at immediately. As far as I am aware there is an issue about expenses for sheriffs, with them saying, in effect, that they are not going to seize goods any more. This is something that needs to be examined very carefully. I appreciate that people should not go to jail for being unable to pay a fine. That is correct but there needs to be a proper debt collection system in the civil area and the sheriffs, for some reason, are not performing adequately at the moment. I am not sure whether they are in a position to or will not collect goods, but if the State is to have a system whereby it collects its fines, then the civil side needs to be at least equal. That is to get off the point, however, and to take from excellent legislation. The Bill is very welcome and I welcome it into the House.