Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Taoiseach on his appointment and wish him well. I wish to address insolvency and free legal aid. On insolvency, Covid-19 has brought about an informed truce between creditors and debtors. Many of those paying rent or mortgages have been given a temporary reprieve while they unable to work as a result of the current situation. However, this truce will soon end as income support measures and rent moratoriums are gradually lifted. Even though the economy was doing well in the lead-up to Covid, many people were still recovering financially from the recession. More than 26,000 mortgage accounts were in arrears before the pandemic. That figure is now likely to rise. This situation needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

The Government has recognised the clear need for an extension of rent freezes for those who have been economically hit by Covid-19, but there have been legal challenges to extending such freezes for longer than three months. Similarly, according to the Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, several protections have been put in place to assist borrowers, such as the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform (Amendment) Act 2019, but there have been delays in the implementation of the legislation and its benefit has yet to be felt by the public.

There is much uncertainty among members of the business community. Given the current climate, many business owners do not know when they will be able to start planning and recovering their livelihoods. This, in turn, creates the risk that many employers will be forced to make redundant the unprecedented number of staff who have been temporarily laid off. Although these are uncertain times, this stable Government must mitigate to the greatest extent possible the uncertainty faced by Irish businesses.

I ask the Taoiseach to comment on the State infrastructure for dealing with over-indebtedness, especially with regard to those who are still recovering from the previous recession. What will the State do to help prepare for the coming situation? What action will the Government take to streamline legislation and implement measures that would lessen uncertainty for most renters, those in mortgage arrears and business owners experiencing difficulty?

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