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

Amendment No. 63 provides for a new subsection to section 61 which sets out how the costs and charges are to be apportioned in a debt settlement arrangement unless the arrangement already makes such provision.

Amendment No. 127 is next. These are similar amendments and presumably this is why they are grouped together. My assistant wrote "no WGM factor" beside this amendment. I gather he meant no wig and gown merchant factor. These are the people we are trying to keep out of it as part of the overall objective. I put forward the amendment in case it is of help in the context we have described. The Minister has invented a conciliation process rather than a bankruptcy process and this is to be encouraged.

Whereas household debt was 40% of income in 1995, according to a Mr. Spooner it is now 176%. What the Minister is trying to do is absolutely necessary to remove all of that. I have no idea what would happen in the courts if debt to household income of 176% was being litigated. These amendments may help the Bill and this is the spirit in which they are offered.