Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I caution that there are many people in the United Kingdom who are not happy with the bankruptcy tourists coming from this country. Senator Daly is correct in what he said. I too have heard that the UK is considering reviewing the time period for dealing with this. I believe the three-year period is appropriate, but perhaps the Minister should consider reviewing this on Report Stage. Perhaps it should be reviewed after 18 months, if possible.

I am mindful of the legislation in terms of company law, where a company can apply for examinership and go into court and get examinership and have 85% of its debts written down and then return to buoyancy. I can think of a number of examples where this has happened, particularly hotels which got 85% of their debts written down. The majority of people affected by the examinership of such hotels, outside of banks, were milkmen, breadmen and people with small businesses who were self-employed, but there was no comeback for them when the hotels returned to buoyancy.

I would like to see this legislation get it right. I accept the counsel of the Minister as I have no doubt his officials have studied international law to the nth degree to get this right.