Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share time with Deputies Joan Collins, Clare Daly, Shane Ross and Mick Wallace.

I could give a technical critique of the Bill and why it would protect tens of thousands of men, women and children but there is no point because it will be voted down in 90 minutes. Instead, I would like to take the time I have to tell a quick story. In late January, a couple came to see me in Wicklow. They had a mortgage and were both working and getting on with their lives when he suffered health problems and they went into arrears. They went to a personal insolvency practitioner who came up with a proposal. They had the agreement of the Insolvency Service of Ireland, went to court, proposed it to the judge and the bank came in and vetoed it. The judge adjourned the hearing to try to make it happen but the bank vetoed it again. They were forced into bankruptcy and the official assignee has granted a five-year income attachment order. For the next five years, everything they earn goes to the bank. Her wages have fallen as well and now they cannot meet their rent. The rent allowance rules mean that if the rent allowance allocation does not meet the full market rent, people get nothing. Rent allowance does not come close to current market rents in many places. The couple came to me in January not to talk about the mortgage but to talk about their options when they were made homeless.

I am sick and tired of meeting Irish men and women who come into our offices with these stories. I am sick of them coming in and I am sick of hard-working men and women having their dignity taken from them and coming in in fear because they were unlucky enough to get sick or have their wages cut. This Government and the previous Government have done nothing. Inaction by the Government means this couple will be homeless, their lives will be destroyed, it will cost the State a fortune and the bank will not get a fraction of what it would have received through a binding solution. The Bill is a small step in the right direction and should be passed. A non-whipped vote in the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform would see it voted through. I commend the Bill to the House and I congratulate Deputy Michael McGrath.

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