Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The issue of reducing the term of bankruptcy from three years to one year is separate from restructuring mortgages, and should be seen as such. By mixing both issues one could end up making a decision which would not be helpful. If somebody has mixed debt, the only institution that has security is the bank because it has the deeds of the home and is underpinning the mortgage. Therefore the banks are in a good position if part of the mixed debt is a mortgage. This is why repossession occurs in so many cases. Most of the repossessions I referred to are voluntary in working out the bankruptcy.

As to the Deputy's precise question, officials in my Department keep these matters constantly under review and will advise me on them. We are not working to a particular timeline, but we are collecting the relevant data. I presume that some of the data will be put into circulation in due course, later on.

If there are merits in reducing the three-year bankruptcy period to one year, as has been done in other jurisdictions, that is a separate policy consideration from resolving the mortgage crisis. It does not resolve the mortgage crisis and, in fact, the data would suggest that persons who enter bankruptcy lose their homes more than people who do not.

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