Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 18, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “(3A) The process adviser shall provide proof that the ‘reminder notice’ served on a creditor has been received by the creditor concerned.”.

Given that it is an offence under section 558O(8) for a creditor not to comply with and respond to the process adviser's notice, it would be prudent to ensure the notice has actually reached the creditor in question. This amendment is possibly by way of what might be called belt and braces and baler twine. The best way to address my concerns is by accepting this amendment and ensuring that when a reminder notice is issued, it is certain it has been received. If a notice is sent to a creditor and no reply has been received, it might be because he or she has received it and is ignoring it, in which case that is an offence under 558O(8), but in the instance where it is not received, that person will be in the position of being guilty of an offence under subsection (8). However, that person cannot know that if he or she does not know the notice has been sent.

I am willing to hear the Minister of State out on this, notwithstanding the disagreement we had on time being the only reason for passing this Bill. If there is provision elsewhere in the legislation for this, I would be grateful to hear from him about it. If there is not, again, I would be grateful to hear from the Minister of State about how this is to be dealt with. It is a genuine concern given that you could find yourself guilty of an offence by virtue of the fact you simply did not receive the relevant piece of correspondence.

See this speech in context