Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I appreciate the complications involved in that the issue does not relate solely to this Bill. However, before it is enacted into law, we should clarify precisely what the phrase means. While I know that any Senator who might be declared bankrupt would immediately cease to be a Member of the Oireachtas, I am not sure that one would be prohibited from running again if the provision was invoked. I have never had to deal with the issue, although a person known to some of us came close to it on one occasion. There is a separate issue involved in this regard. Perhaps it is public policy that a person who is declared bankrupt once is to be permanently excluded thereafter from the relevant entitlements. However, I do not claim to be very knowledgeable about bankruptcy but perhaps the Minister does.