Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe any Deputy in this House intends that. Nor do they intend that somebody in the building trade whose company might have fallen apart in 2008 and ended up on MIS might now be blocked from going back to work with the pickup in construction. It has become an unemployment trap. I invite Deputy Joan Collins to read up on how it has worked. Deputy Donnelly is right in saying that organisations such as MABS, CIB and the accountants who are providing free advice are offering a resolution. Ultimately, the actual insolvency services will help people who are over their heads in terms of the level of debt they took on, perhaps in 2006 or 2007, spurred on by what the then Government was doing. We need to resolve it for them and not leave them parked with just handing out money to the bank and no resolution for them.

I understand the sentiment behind what Deputies are suggesting, which hopes to help people. However, it does not help people to leave them parked and locked out of work, as this is doing, when the resolution needs to be offered by the bank so that they can get their debt down to reasonable levels.

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