Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate and I compliment my constituency colleague for ensuring this legislation was brought forward. This is one of the first backbench Bills to be enacted during the Government's five-year term. While I compliment my colleague, it is a great shame on the part of the Government parties that they have introduced Friday sittings and lauded themselves for giving Members an opportunity to bring forward legislation but have not taken any of it on board, with the exception of this Bill.

The proposal to reduce the term of bankruptcy to one year is certainly a radical move and a significant departure from old cultural views of dealing with debt. This legislation is a pro-enterprise and a rational measure, and l sincerely hope it will be an effective one. One of the greatest challenges faced by our people from the onset of the global economic and financial crisis was the significant debt that many found themselves engulfed in when the economic tsunami hit the country. Many people, who had been in a position to repay money borrowed from financial institutions in previous years, found that their income had reduced or disappeared altogether as a result of unemployment. Unfortunately, the legislative instruments of the State had not developed any capacity since Independence to deal with the kind of debt crisis we all witnessed.

There have been a number of false dawns in the Government's actions to deal with the personal debt crisis, including the utterly impotent Personal Insolvency Act 2012, which left the banks with a veto on proposed settlements by the debtor. It is a crying shame that five years into the lifetime of the Government, in the dying days of the Administration, it feels it is an appropriate time to bring forward this legislation. How many thousands of families have been left unaided by the Government over the past five years?

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