Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I object in particular to amendment No. 25 and the related amendments. As the Bill currently stands, it is quite clear that the court shall not disclose a verifying certificate to the judgment creditor concerned. Amendment No. 25 provides that the judgment creditor would end up with the statement of means of the creditor. It gives more power to the creditor over the debtor than is currently contained in the Bill. For that reason, I will oppose the amendment.

The amendment is in line with the general approach of the Government, which is to attempt to use this legislation to bully people into paying water charges in particular. Although this legislation predates the water charges and originally had nothing to do with them, it is being used as an excuse to try to drive the water charges home. Of course, the Government had quite a problem yesterday when the efficiency of its bullying was revealed to be relatively low. It is very pleasant to finish the parliamentary term on a note of agreement with the Minister for water charges, Deputy Alan Kelly. Despite all of our disagreements throughout the year, we are both more than happy with the levels of payment of the water charges.

Despite the amendments that the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Government are making, and despite the fact that those amendments will pass, none of this is a serious threat to the 57% of people who have not paid or to the others who will now join them. There are no direct deductions from wages, social welfare or pensions. There are no deductions whatsoever until two court cases take place. The first of those court cases cannot take place until someone already owes €500, which takes us at least until the end of 2017 before any of this process could start from the point of view of the water charges. They can only take a tiny percentage of non-payers to court and, between now and then, we have an election. If over 50% of people are not paying, this will be the number one issue and there will be immense pressure on the Government to abolish the charges.

I oppose the shifting of the balance of power further towards the creditor in terms of the information and statement of means.

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