Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I compliment Deputy Michael McGrath for introducing this Bill, the latest in a series of initiatives he and our colleagues in the Seanad have introduced to address the issue of mortgage and personal debt, the growing level of which is a potential tsunami facing this country. As Deputy McGrath outlined, under this Bill a person struggling to cope with personal debt can apply to a new office for a debt settlement arrangement. Following a comprehensive assessment of that person's financial affairs, a personal insolvency trustee makes a proposal to the person's creditors.

Deputy McGrath has gone through the various provisions of the Bill, all of which will have a very practical and real impact on people who are in a very challenging position across this country. He has gone to great lengths in the preparation of this Bill to ensure that this is not carte blanche for people who will not pay, as opposed to those who cannot pay. That has been the conundrum all along in the preparation of this legislation and the debate about mortgage debt; we have tried to strike a balance between those two categories. This is a Bill for those who cannot pay, with a method offering a chance to come to an arrangement with those to whom money is owed.

The issue of mortgage and personal debt is a whole-of-life matter, requiring a whole-of-Government response. It requires the entire Oireachtas to come together, leave partisanship aside and produce a speedy and effective response. The response to date has not been urgent enough. When one considers the scale of the decisions of this new Government while this problem remains unresolved, it shows a lack of urgency which we must collectively resolve to address. In this Bill Deputy McGrath has provided a road map to do so.

We should reflect on the gravity of the issue. Figures provided by the Central Bank at the end of August show that in December 2010, one in ten mortgages was "in trouble". In March 2011, three months later, the figure was one in nine and by the end of August the Central Bank identified that one in eight mortgages is, to use its phrase, "in trouble". FLAC has provided a further breakdown of these statistics to put some real-life light on the argument. This amounts to 95,158 mortgages "in trouble", of which 55,763 are in arrears and 39,395 have been restructured. FLAC breaks down the figures further to show that of the approximately 55,700 in arrears, 72% have been in arrears for more than six months, with the average amount of arrears in the category at €21,000 per household.

This relates to mortgage debt around the principal private residence. We do not have that kind of information about other personal debt and we do not have that information with regard to personal loans, credit and store cards, car loans and so-called home improvement loans. We do not have the information on loans between families, parents and children or between siblings. We know we have the highest per capita personal debt in the developed world. We know that one of the drivers of the collapse in our domestic economy is that people lucky enough to be in a position to pay down personal debt are doing so at a rate never before seen. Others are saving money because they are afraid to spend in a way that we need them to in order to create jobs because they do not want to end up in debt.

Those who are €21,000 in arrears with their mortgage are probably many more thousands of euro in debt from other forms of credit which we have referred to. There is not a Deputy who has not dealt with such a situation in his or her constituency clinic or in terms of the queries he or she receives on a daily basis.

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service is at the coalface of this challenge. That organisation does an extraordinary job with limited resources. I welcome the commitment in the Keane report to allocate 100 extra advisers to it. Its comments on the Keane report are relevant. It said "it is counterproductive to address mortgage arrears without simultaneously seeking to manage the issue of personal debt". It also said "any arrangement which separates the matter of personal debt can only work to the detriment of the mortgage holder". When the organisation dealing with this issue on a 24 hour a day seven days a week basis comes up with that contention that shows the reality of the situation and the need for Deputy Michael McGrath's Bill.

I welcome the fact the Government will not oppose the Bill tomorrow night. However, my experience to date is that while it may not formally oppose it, it will file it under the heading "to be done and to be looked at" and that will be the end of it. We have a list of Bills like that. This Bill is incredibly important. It needs to proceed urgently. Deputy Michael McGrath said he is agreeable to discussing amendments to it on Committee Stage. Therefore, there is no reason we cannot get this process quickly under way.

The debt settlement and mortgage resolution office, as proposed by Deputy Michael McGrath, would give a voice to those who are drowning in personal debt. It would act as a trusted broker but, more importantly, it would be an empowered broker, a broker we currently do not have. The broker would be empowered to strike deals between those who owe and those who are owed. That is what we need.

If the proposed office were established, MABS would have an avenue open to it to send people who approach it for whom it cannot reach agreement with creditors. It would be empowering for people to have such an avenue open to them.

Most Deputies at this stage have had experience of dealing with the pressures of personal debt in their constituencies. Earlier this year I dealt with the case of an individual with a €30,000 debt on three credit cards. The spending on the credit cards was not extravagant in terms of expensive holidays or weekends away rather it was payments to Tesco, Lidl or Dunnes Stores. The person because he was self-employed was not in a position to sign on the dole or receive any benefits and for a year and a half had used those three credit cards to live. He had approached the Department of Social Protection for assistance and was turned down and he had approached the various agencies and was also turned down. Thus, the bill had amassed. He did not want to walk away from his debt. He had managed despite his difficulties to pay off the debts of his business but the debt had finally grown to a level where he could no longer live. Luckily we worked with him and got him his various social welfare entitlements and we are still working on the level of the debt with the credit card companies. In fairness to two of the three companies, they were amenable to being dealt with. As Members of the Oireachtas we cannot force either the supported banks, in respect of which we are all working hard, or the non-supported banks to examine the reality of the situation that they, in many instances, created by issuing credit cards, increasing limits without being asked and by not doing basic credit checks which bankers used to do before they offered personal loans and credit cards. That case is only one of a number with which I and, I assume, my 165 colleagues are all struggling to deal. When people with such difficulties come to us they want us to give them some hope and to show them an avenue out of their difficulties. We do that by working with MABS but Deputy Michael McGrath's organisation would have power to strike a deal with those who are willing to do so.

I am glad the Minister, Deputy Shatter is in the Chamber. He has been more active than many of his colleagues in producing legislation on a range of issues. I wonder why the personal insolvency Bill is so far down his list of priorities. He has been good at producing the heads of legislation and bringing them to committee before bringing the Bill to the floor of the House. Is it possible for him to bring the heads of this Bill to committee before Christmas so we can initiate the discussion on what, I gather, he is planning to bring forward in the first quarter of 2012? Even the production of draft heads, which he has produced for some Bills, would allow us to find out his thinking on the issue and allow the committee, which operates on a non-partisan basis, to give some direction to bringing in this important legislation. It would show that as an Oireachtas we are conscious of the pressures people are under and that we are willing to respond.

Deputy Michael McGrath has been careful in producing this legislation. This Bill and debate is not about helping people to walk away from responsibilities for which they have signed up. It is about assisting those in serious difficulties, which many people will not talk about or acknowledge and in respect of which many do not know where to go for assistance. This is affecting every aspect of their lives.

We have just completed Mental Health Awareness Week and last week various bodies at the coalface of dealing with mental health pointed to the impact of the recession as a driver in the increased demand for mental health services during the past 18 months to two years in particular. When one considers the figures given by Free Legal Advice Centres, namely, average mortgage arrears of €21,000, is borne on the shoulders of people around the country in addition to debt not measured - if we could get figures on the levels of personal debt, that would contribute greatly to this discussion - people are under great pressure with that level of debt hanging over their heads on a daily basis. People who have taken pay cuts, have been subject to tax hikes and have suffered business failure through no fault of their own have this personal debt gnawing away at their day to day existence. That cannot continue. That gnawing will put pressure on a health system that is already stretched. We have it within our power as an Oireachtas to act and to do something practical that will assist these people.

I ask the Minister present, Deputy Shatter, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, not to file this Bill under any other business. When we leave this Chamber tomorrow night without a division being called on it, I ask the Government not to file it as something that will be done at some point along the way. It needs to be urgently acted on. Such debt is an immediate pressure on people across the country who hear Members proclaiming green shoots are appearing which these people do not see. They are looking for an avenue through which to get assistance and we are providing such an avenue through this legislation. Please accept it and enact it as a matter of urgency.

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