Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is unfortunate that the Minister has chosen to reduce this debate to the level of the ridiculous. We are talking about people who have debts of less than ¤20,000, people with a disposal income of less than ¤60 a month and people who have other assets of ¤400 or less per month. They are not hoarding the crown jewels in their attic. They are broken people. They may have an engagement ring they bought on a credit card a few years ago that may be worth substantially more than ¤500. It might be worth ¤2,000 or ¤3,000 or up to ¤5,000. These are people whose marriages may have broken up and that is all they have left. We should examine this issue in a realistic way. We are talking about one item of jewellery of ceremonial significance and for the Minister to refer to nose rings and other types of rings is ludicrous and shows a lack of serious intent. Those comments should be withdrawn. I intend to press this amendment. I do not know whether other colleagues have anything to add but the amendment is very important. These people are broken and we should not take every last personal item from them before they can avail of a debt relief notice.