Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about this Bill. For those involved in small businesses, it is a welcome addition to the legislative programme. It provides an opportunity for those small businesses that have been wrongfully done and not received payments. Instead of sending debtors to prison, there will be an opportunity to make attachment orders to the some income they may have.

It is interesting that most of the whingeing from the Opposition benches centres on the fact that this legislation is associated with the Irish Water legislation that passed through the House yesterday. This Bill will have wide-ranging application. It is not just for those who refuse to pay their Irish Water bills as Sinn Féin has encouraged people to do. It has been out marching against paying water charges. It probably had some of its people on the street outside Leinster House on Wednesday, preventing law-abiding citizens from going about their daily business

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