Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

Before I comment on the Bill, further to what Deputy Doherty said, I must state that Fianna Fáil played a major role in the debt crisis and the mortgage crisis affecting so many of our citizens. It played a major role in the inflation of the property bubble, pushing the cost of basic housing needs beyond affordability for ordinary people particularly in the years from 2003 to 2007 when house prices became false prices in a false economy. This was accompanied by the effective ending of the construction of social housing, again a policy of the previous Government. People were forced into huge mortgages and now find themselves in huge negative equity. The human, family and social cost of this negative equity is having a great impact on our communities. Fianna Fáil was also responsible for the economic collapse which has seen so many people lose their jobs and so many small businesses go under. This is why we have a debt crisis.

That said, there is urgent need for legislation on bankruptcy and debt resolution. Eight months since the formation of the new Government we are still discussing that and still waiting for the heads of the Bill. I was glad to hear the Minister, Deputy Shatter, say he was moving on that and it cannot come soon enough for many people. I have been representing a young man with a young family whose small business got into difficulty and he lost his home. He also lost his business and is now bankrupt owing to having received extremely poor legal advice. He faces the next 12 years on the dole, claiming rent allowance and unable to hold a bank account. Any earnings over €300 must be forfeited to his creditors. He is effectively frozen out of society and frozen out of the economy.

Resolution of this problem is the responsibility of the Government. We must introduce legislation urgently and there are good ideas in this Bill. The 12-year bankruptcy period is brutal - and it can even go beyond that. Five years is not good enough and we should introduce legislation to reduce the bankruptcy period to three years. We must allow people such as this young man from a working class background to get his life back together and earn a living for his family and have a future.

The Bill does not go far enough in addressing the general insolvency and mortgage issues, and does not even deal with the tip of the iceberg. We need legislation, not guidelines, to keep people who are engaging with lenders in their homes. This means a ban on repossession and eviction in these circumstances. We need independent assessors to assess ability to pay, with a cap of 35% on net income and the power to enforce payment arrangements with lenders on that basis. We also need a write-down of negative equity - there is no way around this. A man, with whom I would generally not agree politically, President Bill Clinton, made a very important point at the Global Irish Economic Forum. He understands the nature of capitalism and understands that unless this economy is freed from debt and the mortgage crisis is off our back, we will not come out of this recession. Unless the crisis is dealt with, we will have no growth in our economy and we will not move forward.

The banks have already been recapitalised by €10 billion, following the stress tests. Up to €14 billion will be needed to remove households from negative equity mortgages. If we take out trophy houses and buy-to-let mortgages and service the negative equity in ordinary homes and small apartments, that would cost €7-8 billion. We should look at that figure when trying to remove negative equity from ordinary people who bought houses at false prices in a false economy. We cannot tiptoe around this issue. We cannot protect the bankers. We cannot allow them to keep making profit out of people's misery and indebtedness, and we must stop this madness in the economy at the moment.

The Keane report was produced by six bankers, one of whom is an accountant, and 16 top civil servants. Not one of them is in negative equity. Not one of them is facing the crisis that ordinary people are facing, many of whom are sitting behind closed doors, pushing the world away, and when the post arrives, they sit down and look at the letter for two hours. I have spoken to people in this situation and I am sure the Minister has done so too. His community is not immune to people who are facing this kind of crisis. They have a big monkey on their back. They think they are responsible, but they are not responsible. The banks are responsible, as are the brokers.

I will not oppose this Bill on Second Stage. There should be more debate on it, but we need a quick resolution for people who are desperately waiting for an outcome to their situation.

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