Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Civil Debt Bill 2015, which I will be opposing. The Government has argued that the Bill is commendable and came about as a result of recommendations from the Law Reform Commission. At least one section of the Bill is to be welcomed by all Members of the House - namely, the abolition of imprisonment for non-payment of debt. This puts an end to the shameful situation whereby a person could be taken to court and then imprisoned for not paying for a television licence. Maybe, with an election coming up, the Government has grown a conscience. Maybe it has simply woken up to the sad fact that the prison services cannot cope with the number of people imprisoned for non-payment of fines.

This Bill is not about civil debt at all. It is about Irish Water. Faced with massive non-payment and non-registration for Irish Water, the Government is running scared. The people are winning. In response, the Government is scaremongering by suggesting people will be taken to court for non-payment of water charges. It is trying to bully and scare people into paying for water, which they already do in the form of general taxation. People will not be fooled into paying for their water twice.

The Minister will say this Bill is not about Irish Water, but that is exactly what it is about. The Government is trying to punish those people who cannot afford to pay another bill. It is not interested in giving people options. It wants to leave people with no choice but to capitulate. Yet again, the Government seriously underestimates the will of the Irish people and the strength of the non-payment campaign. Irish Water is in fact already dead in the water and this Bill is just another desperate attempt by the Government to buoy it up by ramming this legislation through before the summer recess. It is initiating debates on non-regular sitting days, changing the names of Bills, changing sections at the last minute, and guillotining real and frank debate on these issues. One of the major reforms we were to see when this Government came to power was that the guillotine would not be used or would only be used very sparingly. In fact, it has been used more often during this Dáil than during the previous one. That shows the Government's disregard for the democratic process and its arrogance in the face of large-scale opposition to water charges. It can be seen in this Bill.

Rather than go after the real architects of the recession in our country, it is going after the little people - the soft targets - and it is going after them for the shirt off their backs. The big debtors to the Irish economy were given write-downs and debt forgiveness worth billions, while ordinary people can now be taken to court for a debt of as little as €500.

With the Civil Debt Bill 2015, the Government has once again pinned its colours to the mast and sided with huge utility companies and multinational corporations rather than with the ordinary people. They have chosen to enact this legislation to help creditors rather than debtors. The hypocrisy of this Government has to be seen to be believed.

As has been the case with nearly everything else the Government has done, this Bill will have an impact on those who are already vulnerable, such as women, those on low incomes and those in receipt of social welfare. This, of course, should come as no surprise, considering the Government's track record in this regard, which seemed particularly evident last week with the cruel and regressive cuts to the lone parent allowance and the utter disdain for those on low incomes voiced by one of the Government Deputies last week, which was so base that I will not attempt to repeat it.

Those people who struggle to survive on a daily basis are the most vulnerable to falling into debt. A cycle of constant indebtedness is a real possibility when, in paying off one debt, a person falls into another, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty that represses ordinary people in this country. In case the Government needs any reminder in this regard, this week the Living Wage Technical Group published the findings of its research, which showed that people in Ireland need to earn €450 a week to be able to afford an acceptable standard of living. This equates to an hourly rate of €11.50, which means a living wage is one third higher than the minimum wage, which is set at €8.65 an hour for an adult. There are many thousands of Irish citizens who do not earn a living wage and are living on well below €450 a week. They are the ones who are being targeted by the Government while the bankers and their friends get off scot free.

A seemingly welcome aspect of the Bill is that it makes it clear that water charges cannot be deducted at source; they cannot be taken directly from people's incomes and social welfare. Instead, the Bill provides that each case must be heard in court before an attachment order can be granted. That means that each and every case involving a person who is taking part in the massive campaign to boycott water charges must be heard in court, something that simply cannot be done. All of their finances must be looked at and they can appeal the ruling. Of course, they cannot be taken to court for at least two years on the basis of the €500. Those who are indebted to the tune of only €500 are hardly likely to be able to pay for legal representation. How are the vulnerable to be represented in the courts? Will they be dependent on free legal aid and will they get it? This Bill, if enacted, will be completely unworkable.

The Bill allows creditors, including Irish Water, to apply to the court for an order enabling an attachment of earnings or deductions from social welfare payments for the purpose of the enforcement of debt of as little as €500. This will disproportionately target those on low pay and persons in receipt of social welfare payments. There is no requirement in the legislation that a creditor must first exhaust other avenues before resorting to taking a person to court. In this regard, I echo the sentiments of my colleague, Deputy Pringle, when he stated last Friday:

People must be afforded an opportunity to enter into a payment plan to allow them to reduce their debt without having to go before the courts.

On attachment orders for people in receipt of social welfare payments, the Bill is unclear about the level at which attachment orders may be made against social welfare payments. ... Without ... a threshold, the courts may place people in even greater financial difficulty by allowing attachment orders to be made which would reduce a social welfare payment to an amount below the level required to survive.

Any reasonable and responsible creditor will help a person pay his or her debt by way of delaying the repayment, freezing interest rates or accepting payment by instalments. The legislation before the House today does not impose on creditors any obligation to offer debtors a payment plan or require them to enter into payment with a debtor before seeking to secure a payment order for the debt in court. The creditor can immediately opt to take a person to court. This, of course, is reckless. The Bill completely ignores this.

I believe this Bill is unworkable, will not be successful if it is implemented, and will ensure that there is increased opposition to these unjust and unfair water charges, which represent more austerity for ordinary people.

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