Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

What do the luminaries Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Milton Hershey and H. J. Heinz all have in common? They all went bankrupt and failed. Winston Churchill stated: "Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Our current bankruptcy legislation frustrates courage. It makes mice out of lions, it makes bottle-washers out of hoteliers, and it makes paupers out of sole traders.

The Irish novelist Samuel Beckett stated: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." While this might have been chanted first by an Irishman, it is the mantra of American entrepreneurs, not Ireland. As legislators, we should have listened to Beckett a long time ago. Our entrepreneurs deserve our support, not our condemnation, but a balance must be struck. If we had listened, perhaps our archaic bankruptcy legislation would have been more in line with that of the rest of the world. Perhaps we would have less forum shopping in this area.

In the years to come we will tell our children the tale of the "Flight of the Bankrupts". An entire industry has been established to assist our bankrupts in declaring elsewhere. They are referred to as bankruptcy tourists. It has been claimed that as many as 4,000 Irish residents per year file for bankruptcy in the UK, where an average of 1,392 people are declared bankrupt per week. This can be compared with just 30 declared bankruptcies in Ireland in 2010. This situation is hardly surprising, given how negatively our bankruptcy laws compare with the UK's. If one was offered a prison sentence of 12 months or 12 years, which would one take? It is a no-brainer. In the coming years, it is important that we watch to ensure that this legislation abates bankruptcy tourism. If it does not, we will need to readdress the matter.

As a politician, I believe that it is right and fair to allow bankrupts to start over after a reasonable time. The timeframe should be adjusted for scale. Someone who is €500,000 in the red should be given preferential treatment over a person who is €5 million in debt. A sliding scale would be more ethical. Our criminal justice system does not treat a drug user and drug pusher in the same way. Similarly, we should not treat all bankrupts the same. Some bankrupts might not like the comparison to drug users, but both leave victims in their wake. Creditors can be plunged into bankruptcy by a bankrupt debtor. Keeping Irish bankrupts at home gives creditors a greater opportunity to get more of their money refunded.

It was once highlighted that capitalism without bankruptcy was like Christianity without hell. Therefore, we need to wake up and start tackling the issue. Like capitalism, it is here to stay. We need to put a stronger system in place not just to support bankrupts, but also to support the fatalities they leave behind. Personal debt is a problem for many people. I will not roll out the numbers, as that was done earlier. Often, the plight of the people in question is lost in the statistics.

I have been contacted by many people in dire straits. As a Deputy, telling constituents that legislation to assist is coming has been frustrating. One constituent replied, "So is Christmas". People are frustrated and it is imperative that the Bill not frustrate and alienate them further. We must avoid judgments that ignite Irish begrudgery instincts or situations in which neighbours are torn apart, for example, if one neighbour receives a personal insolvency agreement and the other does not.

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