Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I apologise to Members for being slightly delayed. The Government launched the new visa waiver scheme this morning and I hope it will result in a great many more tourists and business people visiting here.

The Long Title of this Bill is unusually long. It refers to the many Acts of the Oireachtas the Bill amends. This is an indication of the scope of the Bill and the many reforms of the law it seeks to achieve. The number of Acts referred to here is also indicative of the size and complexity of the Bill. More than 40 Acts are referred to and in addition, the Bill has an unusual number of Parts, 15 in all, and that too demonstrates a Bill of some substance.

I am indebted to this House for taking the Bill at short notice given that it was published only on Friday last. However, Members will appreciate that there are some very worthwhile and wide-ranging measures in the Bill, including some that require enactment with some speed because of gaps in the law. This Bill introduces a number of important reforms in the law across a broad range of areas. These include bankruptcy law, the enforcement of maintenance orders in family law cases, additional domestic violence protection, the amalgamation of the coroner districts of Dublin, protection of good samaritans and those engaged in voluntary work, some changes in the area of immigration and citizenship, legal assistance for the victims of human trafficking, the appointment of Taxing Masters to the High Court and amendment of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009. It contains elements of the 2010 Bill published by my predecessor but I have significantly amended some original provisions contained therein and have addressed a significant number of additional areas of the law. The many changes in the Bill will make the law more efficient and more effective in the areas addressed.

Given the parlous state of our economy and the debt situation of many people, it is not surprising that the provisions in Part 7 of the Bill on bankruptcy already have received more attention than anything else. The most critical change proposed is in the replacement of section 85 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, so as to provide that the period for application to the court for discharge of bankrupt persons be reduced from 12 years to five years. The discharge remains subject to the existing conditions. These are payment in full of all expenses, fees and costs of the bankruptcy, as well as all preferential payments, primarily to the Revenue Commissioners. The costs and preferential debts involved may amount to quite large sums and in a good number of cases the debtor will be unable to meet these amounts at any stage, and so may remain bankrupt for some time. Nevertheless, the change will be welcome. It will afford a chance to people to recover and to begin anew.

The new section 85 also provides, for the first time in Irish law, for the automatic discharge of bankruptcies on the 12th anniversary of the adjudication order in those cases. This will assist in the discharge of long-term bankruptcies and will allow the official assignee in bankruptcy to bring closure to 365 so-called "legacy bankruptcies" that currently clog up the system.

In line with a commitment in the programme for Government, a personal insolvency Bill is in the course of being developed in my Department to provide for a new framework for settlement and enforcement of debt and for personal insolvency. The framework will make provision for resolutions, without the necessity of court applications. The commitment under the EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland is to publish the Bill in the first quarter of 2012. It is my objective to publish the measure ahead of the EU-IMF deadline, if possible. Work is advanced to achieve that objective.

In developing the Bill, account is being taken of the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission in its recent report on personal debt management and debt enforcement. That report provided an in-depth review of the personal debt regime. Moreover, the economic and financial effects of certain of the new arrangements that are in contemplation are being carefully assessed to ensure that all relevant issues are addressed and their impact is fully anticipated and understood and to ensure there are no unintended consequences. A key objective of the Bill will be to achieve a balance, in so far as is possible, between the interests of creditors and debtors and also to create a system that avoids as far as possible the need for expensive bankruptcy procedures and court involvement.

Part 14 of the Bill, relating to the Office of the Taxing Master, is an interim measure pending more detailed reform of the office in line with commitments in the programme for Government and in the EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland. Part 14 amends the law so as to widen the qualifications for appointment as a taxing master. The post is currently confined to solicitors of ten years standing but will now be open to barristers and legal costs accountants. The existing retirement age of 70 years is being reduced to 65 years and the period of appointment will now not exceed five years. These modernisation measures are in keeping with recommendations of the legal costs working croup and of the Competition Authority and with our ongoing EU-IMF commitments to structural reform in the legal costs area. In that connection, my proposals for the Legal Services Bill are at a very advanced stage of development. They will provide for fundamental reform of regulation of legal costs, of the legal professions and of the adjudication process. The timeline for publication of those proposals is the third quarter of this year. I anticipate they will be published towards the end of the coming September.

Part 8 of the Bill inserts new provisions in the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976 that would empower the District Court to regard as contempt of court failure by a maintenance debtor to comply with a previous court order and to deal with it accordingly, including by means of imprisonment. The proposed amendment is based on the premise that a court has already deliberated in setting an appropriate level of maintenance and that if the debtor breaches that order without a significant change in his or her circumstances, that breach will constitute contempt of court. As these are civil contempt proceedings, both the debtor and creditor will be entitled, subject to the usual criteria, to civil legal aid. This measure will strengthen the existing provisions in the law for enforcement of orders of the court to pay maintenance. This area is complex and has been under review for some time. Part 8 addresses difficulties which have arisen consequent on the judgment of the High Court in the McCann case of 2009 concerning the enforcement of orders for the recovery of civil debt. The High Court found that the Enforcement of Court Orders Act 1940 lacked a number of necessary safeguards in circumstances where a person is at risk of imprisonment. Following this judgment, the Enforcement of Court Orders (Amendment) Act 2009 inserted a series of amendments designed to protect debtors and impose obligations on the creditor. However, it has become evident that those measures are unfortunately not the most practical in so far as enforcement of maintenance orders is concerned. A real problem has been created for the District Court in this regard.

I would like to take this opportunity to inform the House that I intend to bring forward a further amendment in this area on Committee Stage. I propose to repeal the arrest warrant provision in section 8(1) of the Act while retaining the section to allow it to be used for the enforcement of foreign maintenance orders. This amendment will be more in keeping with the principles outlined in the High Court judgment in the McCann case. In making reference to the enforcement of maintenance orders in the District Court, I wish to state that enforcement orders that can result in a maintenance defaulter being required to spend time in prison are very much last resort measures.

The objective is to ensure that when maintenance support orders are made in the courts, they are complied with by those under an obligation to make payment for the support of either their spouse or children and to ensure that where persons who clearly can afford to comply with orders meet their obligations. The primary remedy available for maintenance default currently is the making of what is known as an attachment of earnings order by the District Court, which facilitates that court when there is a default in maintenance payments requiring the maintenance debtor to make payments directly through the District Court system by way of a court order which requires an employer to deduct the sum due from a weekly, fortnightly or monthly salary payment. The difficulty in this area arises particularly where people are self-employed and attachment of earnings orders have no effect. It is in that area there is a specific gap which, unfortunately, is being exploited by some estranged spouses and parents of some children to evade meeting their legal obligations to provide essential family supports already adjudicated upon by our courts.

I want to turn now to Parts 12 and 13 of the Bill, which deal with the registration of property rights such as rights of way. The background is as follows. Part 8 of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, which came into operation on 1 December, 2009, updated the law concerning the acquisition of easements and profits À prendre. The former are rights over neighbouring land, such as a right of way, while a profit is an established right to take, for example, turf or timber from land. Many of these property rights have been the subject of an express grant and are, therefore, already registered in the Land Registry. However, where the right in question results from long usage, namely, what is referred to as acquisition by "prescription", it may never have been registered. One of the aims of the reforms in the 2009 Act was to ensure registration of such rights. Such registration will facilitate the introduction of electronic conveyancing of land.

The law concerning acquisition of easements and profits by prescription has been greatly simplified and streamlined in Part 8 of the 2009 Act. It provides that such rights may in future only be acquired by prescription on registration of a court order with the Property Registration Authority. However, in late 2010, the Law Society made a submission to the Department in which it expressed concern that in cases in which there was no conflict regarding the existence of these rights, the requirement to obtain a court order would lead to an unnecessary expense for land owners and an unnecessary increase in the workload of the courts. The Government has accepted the thrust of the Law Society's submission and the main purpose of the amendments to the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009. The Registration of Title Act 1964, in Parts 12 and 13 of the Bill respectively, is to permit the Property Registration Authority to register the rights concerned without a court order where there is no disagreement between the parties concerning entitlement to the right concerned. The proposed amendments will allow a land owner, who claims to be entitled to a right on the basis that the relevant requirements set out in the 2009 Act have been met, to apply to the Property Registration Authority to register that right on the owner's Land Registry folio and permit the authority to do so, where the claim has been substantiated to its satisfaction.

To be satisfied that the owner's claim has been substantiated and is not the subject of a dispute, the authority will serve notice on the relevant parties. The detailed notice and other statutory requirements will be published in the form of a statutory instrument. The authority will also publish "practice directions" to guide practitioners. The amendments to the 2009 Act also extend the three year period during which existing rights of way must be registered to 12 years, that is, from December 2012 to December 2021.

Part 2 gives statutory backing to allow the Legal Aid Board to provide legal advice on criminal matters to alleged victims of human trafficking offences. The amendment will enable full effect to be given the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings and to a UN Protocol on trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Both these instruments were ratified in 2010 and are in operation in the State.

In my Department, in the Garda Síochána, in the Health Service Executive and in the Legal Aid Board there are dedicated units dealing with human trafficking and assisting victims, as well as dedicated personnel in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and in the asylum seekers and new communities unit of the Department of Social Protection. Once a potential victim comes to the attention of the competent authority - which for cases of human trafficking is the Garda National Immigration Bureau - they are immediately offered access to a range of services. These include accommodation with the Reception and Integration Agency, medical and support services through a HSE care plan based on the person's individual needs, and legal services provided by the Legal Aid Board. In respect of enforcement, the Garda Síochána has identified trafficking in human beings as one of its priorities in the annual policing plan and has established a human trafficking investigation and co-ordination unit in the Garda National Immigration Bureau .

Part 3 builds on recommendations made by the Law Reform Commission in its 2009 report on the civil liability of good samaritans and volunteers. It amends the Civil Liability Act 1961 to give clear statutory protection from liability to those who, in good faith, help others. The objective is to protect from liability those who, acting with good intentions, go to the assistance of others who are injured or ill as a consequence of an accident or emergency. Protection from liability is also provided for persons working as volunteers for charitable or other organisations for the benefit of society, including sports, recreation and rescue. Volunteers will be required to act in a way that does not contribute to gross negligence, while the volunteer organisation with whose organisation they operate will be held to the higher standard of ordinary negligence. While the higher standard will apply for volunteer organisations, provision is made for account to be taken of the benefit accruing to society as a result of the organisation's work in determining whether it is just and reasonable to impose liability.

I may be bringing forward a further amendment to this provision to ensure that those who undertake voluntary work in circumstances of extreme climate difficulty, such as clearing pathways outside family homes or retail outlets during the type of weather that we witnessed last winter, can be assured that where they do so in good faith and do not act with gross negligence, they will not be liable to be sued should someone slip a couple of days later at the location they sought to clear. I also want to ensure that persons who use other materials to deal with weather events are not equally subject to liability to be sued, where they act in good faith and do not behave in a manner which is grossly negligent. This issue is being discussed by the crisis management committee, which I chair in my capacity as Minister for Defence, which brings together all of the various Departments and agencies in the State who may be deployed or engaged in dealing with various crises, be they environmental or otherwise, and which is engaged in forward planning in these areas.

The effectiveness of the Private Security Authority will be improved by the changes provided for in Part 4 of the Bill. The amendments provide for improvements to the licensing process of the authority, including technical changes to certain aspects of the renewal procedure, and the power for the authority to grant a temporary licence in particular circumstances. The Bill also increases the authority's powers to request information about individuals involved in running a security company. This will augment further the controls on the management of security companies, in addition to tax certification and other compliance measures already in place.

Amendments provided for in the Bill also facilitate changes in the fee structure of the authority and this will allow the authority to appoint a person, in addition to its own staff, to be an inspector. The authority will be in a position to issue a temporary licence to an applicant, who is a new entrant to the industry, for a period not exceeding six months, during which the applicant can prove that he or she has the necessary competence to perform the security services in question. The authority may, in exceptional circumstances, extend the temporary licence for a further three month period, if that is necessary.

Part 5 introduces a new provision in our licensing laws. Section 14 provides for the preparation and publication of codes of practice for the purpose of setting standards for the display, sale, supply, advertising, promotion or marketing of intoxicating liquor.

I stress that such codes are intended as a practical mechanism to promote compliance with the licensing laws by licensees. They are not intended and will not operate as an alternative to Garda enforcement. Nevertheless, while breach of a code will not be an offence, it will constitute a ground on which an objection can be lodged by the Garda to renewal of the licensee's licence. It will then be a matter for the court to decide under what conditions the licence will be renewed. There is scope for using the code of practice mechanism to deal with aspects of licensing law which are difficult to specify in legislation. For example, it can be difficult to define aspects of marketing or promotional activities in a sufficiently watertight and comprehensive manner to restrict or prohibit them. However, practices which generally tend to lead to excessive alcohol consumption could be addressed under an appropriate code. Staff training is recognised as another important area. However, it can be difficult to specify comprehensive standards in legislation. Incorporating such standards in a code could provide a more practical and flexible way of dealing with the matter.

Before concluding on this point, I refer to the existing code of practice on the display and sale of alcohol products in mixed trading premises. This code applies to supermarkets, convenience stores and other mixed trading outlets and it has been implemented by the mixed trading sector as a voluntary alternative to the structural separation provisions in section 9 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008. The mixed trading sector has established a body known as Responsible Retailing of Alcohol in Ireland, with Mr. Padraic White as chairman, to oversee implementation of the code and to report the results of an independent compliance audit to the Minister on an annual basis. The results of the compliance audits have been broadly positive to date and the previous Government was sufficiently satisfied with the progress made that it did not feel it necessary to implement section 9 of the 2008 Act. Mr. White is due to submit his next compliance report to me in September next, and I intend to seek the views of interested bodies and the public on the effectiveness of the code before deciding whether to give effect to the statutory provisions in the 2008 Act.

MEAS, the Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society, was established in 2002 by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland. The voluntary MEAS code requires drinks producers, distributors and licensees to ensure that alcohol is sold and promoted in a socially responsible manner, and only to those over 18 years of age. I was surprised and disappointed by the announcement on 20 June by the Licensed Vintners' Association, LVA, and the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, VFI, of their decision to withdraw their support from the code and to cease their membership of MEAS. I regard this as a backward step and find it difficult to understand. It was my belief that both organisations-----