David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senator Barrett has tabled an interesting amendment. With regard to the three new forms of voluntary debt settlement mentioned in the amendment - the debt relief notice, debt settlement arrangement and personal insolvency arrangement - which form the centrepiece of the legislation, the Minister will be aware from the Second Stage contributions by Members from my party that we have a difficulty with the veto the financial institutions have in respect of them. We would have preferred binding third party independent adjudication in these matters.

Where people are engaged and compliant in respect of any of these new mechanisms, it would be important to protect them from any abuse by unscrupulous employers. I will listen to the Minister's response. There are employment rights bodies and legislation, and workers and employees obviously have recourse through them if they consider themselves to be victimised in any way. However, it is not impossible that because of people being stigmatised by virtue of being involved in any of these new arrangements there could be potential for unscrupulous employers to unfairly impair people's job opportunities within companies and so forth. Senator Barrett raises a fair point, although I am not sure if the amendment is the best way to fix it. I will listen to the Minister's comments on whether he believes the existing employment rights legislation would be sufficiently robust to protect workers who might find themselves in such an unfair position.