Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What the Minister proposes is a major step forward. It is, nevertheless, shocking that we are debating what constitute reasonable living expenses. During the debate on Second Stage, the Minister made an unfortunate reference to food, light and heat, or perhaps it was shelter, light and heat. I acknowledge that we have moved substantially beyond that, but there must be a way for us to devise a one-size-fits-all policy based on a percentage of income which would allow people who have a slightly higher income to spend more and to have different expenses. Those expenses may well be ingrained in their households. As a society, we have not been able to do that.

The banks are dealing with reasonable living expenses in their mortgage arrears resolution schemes. Will the Central Bank look at something analogous to this for the banks? I would object to that because it would put too much power in the hands of people to judge what are reasonable living expenses.

Sinn Féin Senators will be pressing their amendment on the question of disposable income. We will also press our amendment. This is an important point. The section, as drafted, will be extremely restrictive. I do not know who will qualify for the provisions of the Bill. I hope the section will allow people to get relief from their debts, but it is hard to see how. I will talk further on this when we debate the section. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that a step forward has been taken. I pay tribute to FLAC for pushing this issue and for informing public representatives of the issues. Of course, we knew the issues already. The Oireachtas has had a central role in pushing the Minister to put these provisions in a better way than heretofore.