Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I appreciate that and I am not trying to bait the Chairman. The amendment would take cognisance of the earnings a person may receive. There is an obligation on the debtor to sign up to and participate in the repayment. In Senator Regan's amendment on the statement of earnings, there is a timeline, there are specified particulars on earnings and projected earnings regarding his or her resources and needs and it enables the debtor to be identified by present and future employers.

That leads me to my final point. I am a little concerned as to why there is no reference in the Bill to the money advice and budgeting service, MABS. In the Minister's Department he works with disadvantaged communities and groups, and MABS offers people a way of restructuring and repaying, and, more important, it allows people the independence to restructure what they owe. From talking to people employed in MABS, I know they are struggling to respond to the demand for their service. That means we have a difficulty as a society with people being able to repay their loans or debts.

The amendment seeks the removal of the provision that imposes a prison sentence and calls for the facilitation of repayments by debtors. Why does the Bill not provide for improving access to advice and assistance for people in debt? Why can we not allow them to make staged repayments? Ultimately the important point must be that our creditors are entitled to be repaid. As Senator Regan rightly said, the debt still stands after imprisonment. While the Bill is necessary, it represents a missed opportunity. I am not a legally minded person, I am only a person who served on the supervisory committee of a credit union and as a politician I deal with people every day. In my previous role as a supervisor, I met people who were in debt. They struggled and were embarrassed. Senator Boyle spoke about historical practice and the different types of prisons we had. Do we want to go back to that stage again where we put Jerry Buttimer, John Curran or Diarmuid Wilson into jail because they have not paid their debts? Maybe we should set up the barricades and stocks in Mountjoy Square and start to throw eggs at people to embarrass them as the fellow in Monaghan did a few months ago with the debts he owed.