Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to return to the House to report on further amendments made to the Bill in Seanad Éireann.

A total of 245 amendments were proposed and approved during Committee and Report Stages of the Bill in the Seanad. These were all Government amendments and were, for the most part, technical changes or text corrections.

The Long Title of the Bill was amended to take account of the insertion of new provisions in Part 5 concerning the regulation of personal insolvency practitioners and the insertion of a new Part 6 concerning the appointment of specialist judges of the Circuit Court to deal with personal insolvency.

I should also mention that among the amendments approved by the Seanad were those in regard to the exemption of one item of personal jewellery to the value of €750 and an increase in the value of an exempted motor vehicle from €1,200 to €2,000 in the debt relief notice process. Changes along these lines had been advocated by Senators Byrne and Cullinane, in particular, during the Second Stage debate in the Seanad.

A new section concerning the development by the insolvency service of guidelines on a reasonable standard of living and reasonable living expenses for debtors was also influenced by the contributions to the debate made by Senators and in particular by Senator Zappone. I am very pleased to report that progress. I was also pleased to make amendments to the text on Committee Stage in regard to the treatment of goods on hire purchase in the debt relief notice process. These were on foot of comments made by Senator Norris on Second Stage.

For ease of reference and to facilitate the debate, I am proposing to group the amendments thematically. This is because a number of amendments are necessarily repeated throughout the Bill to ensure a consistency of approach in relation to each of the new debt resolution processes, and in some cases are also replicated in the part dealing with bankruptcy.

The Acting Chairman has already read out the various amendments we are taking together. I will deal specifically with those amendments. The purpose of these amendments is either to improve the presentation of the Bill for greater clarity or to correct drafting errors in the text.

Amendments Nos. 173 to 175, inclusive, are drafting amendments designed to allow for service of notices by ordinary pre-paid letter, rather than by registered pre-paid letter as currently required by section 129. This change has been suggested by legal practitioners to address difficulties in using registered post effectively. It is the experience of many solicitors that up to 50% of this post is not delivered. The single largest reason is, and I quote, "Not called for", which is written on the envelope. Other reasons include "refused" or "gone away". On occasions, I think they include certain obscenities, to which I have no intention of giving voice in this House. Not everyone is enthusiastic when they receive something by way of registered post.

Ex parteapplications, which would otherwise have to take place, are expensive and time consuming to follow up on. In Northern Ireland the service of documents is now conducted via first class post. We think it is appropriate that the amendments be made with regard to dealing with ordinary post.

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