Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

What is envisaged is the enactment of comprehensive legislation in the area of insolvency which will substantially reform current law and provide new structures to facilitate addressing issues of debt. The structures will vary depending on the level of debt and the nature of the debts held by the individuals concerned. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that as we are in the developmental stages of the legislation I do not wish to address it in full detail at this stage. It will reflect some of the proposals in the reports that have been published but will not rigidly stick to them because we are looking at better and more realistic solutions in some areas than those which have been proposed. The legislation is scheduled for publication in the first quarter of 2012. With the assistance and support of my officials in the Department, the work we are doing has led us to be optimistic that we can publish the Bill ahead of schedule. It is usually the opposite in the case of legislation. However, I do not want to give a specific date. If we do not manage to publish the Bill ahead of schedule, I give an absolute commitment that it will be published early in the first quarter of 2012. However, I am hopeful we will see it some time prior to Christmas.

I am aware of the remarks made by the Master of the High Court, Master Honohan, and am certain he means well in highlighting an issue that is of concern to many people and of which he has been made aware by way of proceedings in his court. However, Master Honohan referred in his comments to his proposed solution to all of this as a "back of the envelope" solution that appeared to be very simple. It is anything but simple, and indeed back of the envelope solutions can be extraordinarily dangerous. It is correct to say that in the due diligence that has been undertaken on financial institutions there has been factored in possible losses that may arise, for example, in the home mortgage area. However, there is a national interest and hope that some of those losses will not materialise and that people will be able to meet their financial obligations. We must be wary in how we draft this legislation to ensure we do not precipitate some additional financial difficulty or crisis that should be avoided and that we do not create a situation where people who can meet their financial commitments are provided with a mechanism simply to renege on them to the overall detriment of the community and to the further detriment of our financial institutions. While I am anxious that we introduce comprehensive reform we must do so bearing in mind the economic circumstances and the financial impact of any reforms that may be introduced while having a clear vision of the social issues that must also inform the legislation.

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