Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The Law Reform Commission report on debt management and debt enforcement published last December included draft legislation. As, in effect, the Law Reform Commission did the work, a lack of parliamentary draftspeople cannot be used as an excuse for delay. Given the country's level of indebtedness, it would seem obvious that some rational means of dealing with debt would be high on the agenda. I fully support a non-judicial approach to debt management. The last thing we want is to have hundreds and possibly thousands of people dragged through the courts if it can be dealt with in a less stressful and costly way. The programme for Government suggests converting the Money Advice and Budgeting Service into a strengthened personal debt management agency with strong powers. However, it is one thing talking about it and another thing actually delivering it.

I will have an opportunity to speak about the Keane report tomorrow. Page 17 of that report states:

The State currently has no infrastructure or resources in place to run a non-judicial debt settlement process. This is likely to be very complex and take time to implement.

The Minister for Finance's response to the Keane report seems to indicate that a very conservative approach is being taken. The phrase that is continually used is that the can is being kicked down the road. All sorts of legislation has been rushed through the Dáil, often with inadequate scrutiny, and yet an issue as urgent as this has been left on the back burner. People generally act in their own interests and the contributors pulled together to produce the Keane report left out some vital ingredients, including professional organisations that deal directly with the issue, such as MABS. It also left out professionals who are dealing with the social consequences. Most importantly it left out people who had first-hand experience of the day-to-day consequences of drowning in debt. The product of the Keane report is flat and non-responsive. The only parties really included were banks and Departments.

Not long ago President Bill Clinton spoke about the need for us to deal with the debt problems. He did so after the tragic suicide of somebody he had come to know. While the Government is not opposing this legislation it has not made clear how it will proceed to Committee Stage and what amendments might be involved. We need to know the timeframe for dealing with the legislation and after that the timeframe for introducing the agency and what will be involved in doing so. Only when we get those components will we know there is a determined effort to deal with the problem. What is happening now is very damaging to a particular age group in our society, predominantly young people with families. It needs a much higher priority and we need some answers.

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