Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----to live up to and, today, deliver the aspirations of the heroes of 1916 and to ensure the people of Ireland are free from the tyranny of foreign people holding Irish debt. Today we declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland. We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the unfettered control of Irish destinies and one small step in that direction is to reduce the three-year bankruptcy period to 12 months.

This will achieve two things. It will create some equality of arms between the legacy debtor and the new hedge fund or financial institution involved. It is intended to oblige the hedge funds, which I remind the House are unregulated entities answerable to no one, to take commercial stock of the realities of an application for bankruptcy. The question will be whether these hedge funds would prefer to have to deal with a bankruptcy situation rather than achieving a speedy, purposeful and sensible working out of the situation at a fair price.

Connolly and Pearse's declaration of a Republic in 1916 guaranteed equal rights and equal opportunities to all our citizens. They declared their resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. Sadly, for a great many, recovery cannot happen. Great swathes of this nation are unhappy. It seems to me to be of cardinal importance that the three-year bankruptcy period be reduced to 12 months to offer them some hope.

The second benefit is that it will immediately restore confidence.

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