Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know of a person who had an accident and was unfortunately uninsured and owed the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland ¤50,000. He is unemployed and given that there is little prospect of him paying this, he should be subject to a debt relief notice. I suspect his car, which he needs to do the bit of work he does when he goes on and off the dole, is worth more than the ¤1,200 provided for in a different section.

Limiting the qualifying debts to ¤20,000 will exclude a large number of people. Amendment No. 16 proposes to increase that to ¤50,000 which we believe is far more reasonable and brings it into the lower level of the jurisdiction of the High Court. Some people are subject to High Court judgments and yet are completely penniless. We do not want to send them into bankruptcy if we can avoid it. This limit is set very low and it is difficult to imagine that many people will benefit from this. I hope people will be able to get relief from their debts. However, given it is so restrictive - section 24 is entirely couched in negative terms, which we will discuss later - I wonder how beneficial it will be to people. I will be pressing both our amendments in this area. I believe we need to broaden the criteria to allow people in this type of debt to get on with their lives.