Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We throw money at everything but we will not pay our debts. That is how Fianna Fáil ran the country. It threw money at everything without knowing from where the money was coming. That is why we are where we are. In the context of dealing with insolvency legislation, it is applying the same economic philosophy to individuals in debt and to the creditors whose debts will not get paid. Let us be realistic about the issue. It is about providing mechanisms to facilitate people who are in debt, to extricate themselves, to let them get back into a normal life after a period, and to write-off debt. It is not about identifying a whole range of assets of value that should be excluded, leaving the local credit union owed ¤5,000 or ¤6,000 and the local shopkeeper owed ¤2,000. One cannot deal with it in that way. I cannot accept the proposed amendments in respect of cars. The matter has been dealt with appropriately in the Bill.

Amendment No. 29 proposes to add two further exemptions. The first would exempt assets necessary for the maintenance or education of any children of the debtor who are aged 18 years or under. This would be a very broad, almost unlimited, exemption. For example, if a person had a savings fund of several thousand euro, Senator Darragh O'Brien's proposed amendment would allow that fund to be designated for education purposes, thus put off limits to creditors while at the same time applying that the creditor write off the debt owed by the debtor. This the same Fianna Fáil approach to the world - save money, have big cars, buy a large item of jewellery but do not pay one's debts.