Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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I thank Mr. O'Connor for his introduction. It seems that things are moving on and the situations now facing people in personal insolvency arrangements have changed. People seem to be in a better position to be able to negotiate with the banks through a personal insolvency practitioner. At the beginning, the belief was that it was only if a person had money that she could engage a PIP, but if she did not have money, she was high and dry. Who pays the PIPs now? Is it through the Insolvency Service of Ireland? Originally, it cost a great deal of money.

Mr. O'Connor stated that in 80% of cases the service deals with agreements are negotiated and the banks accept the proposals of the service. What happens to the other 20%? At the moment we are seeing many people who find themselves facing eviction and so on, particularly in rural areas. At what late stage can a PIP or the insolvency service intervene for those people in the courts? Can people immediately ring up the insolvency service for assistance or to enable them to stay for three or four months or whatever is necessary?

Does the insolvency service work with local authorities and, if so, how does the service find that interaction? I know of one situation involving a man whose mother took out a vast mortgage with a bank. The mother died and he is left with it now. The local authorities are telling us that they cannot put this person on the housing list unless he has a housing need and that this would only be the case if he loses his home through the courts. At that stage he would have to go on a local authority housing list. What is the interaction between all the agencies that need to be involved around these issues?