David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and am happy to support this Bill which will remove an outdated ban on people who have been declared bankrupt putting themselves forward for election to the Dáil. It also redresses the anomaly where people can contest local elections if they are bankrupt but not Dáil or European Parliament elections. The law regarding local elections was changed in 1974, so this Bill is timely and should be supported. I suppose at one time bankruptcy was seen as a fairly exotic condition which was rare in Ireland but, unfortunately, when the so-called Celtic tiger collapsed, many people found themselves bankrupt, often through no fault of their own. For those people not to be able to contest elections because of that was unfortunate and the fact we are correcting that is a step forward.
However, we must also be conscious that there were undoubtedly cases where certain individuals and institutions were to blame for much of the collapse and a number of cases relating to that are proceeding currently. It could also be argued that it was expedient for certain people to declare themselves bankrupt in this jurisdiction or in other jurisdictions in order to save some of their assets. That should be put on the record because it is an unsavoury practice. We saw some people go to the UK, the US and elsewhere to declare themselves bankrupt, taking and hiding their assets from the State and banks. Essentially, it is the taxpayer who must then foot the bill.
I think we would regard some of those individuals and institutions, such as Anglo Irish Bank, in a different light from someone who finds himself or herself bankrupt from causes which were not really of their own making or brought about because of circumstances beyond their control. We all know people who found themselves in that situation in recent times. Many of them have lost their businesses and homes and have found themselves bankrupt as a consequence.
This legislation is motivated by the case taken by Jillian Godsil whose home was repossessed and who has expressed an interest in contesting the forthcoming European Parliament elections. It would surely be unjust to deny her the opportunity to contest the European Parliament elections or, indeed, anybody who has found himself or herself in the same position as her, especially as I understand the reason she wants to run is to highlight the plight of people who have had their homes repossessed as part of the fall-out of the financial crisis.
The issue at stake here is whether people who have been declared bankrupt should be denied exercising one of the fundamental rights of any citizen in a democracy, which is to stand for election. Those of us who might question the sanity of anyone who would want to subject himself or herself to that, given that we have travelled that road several times in local, general and European Parliament elections, is a different story. Obviously, it is a matter and a right for those individuals and for any citizen to put themselves forward for election.
It was also not right that someone who was bankrupt was denied the right to run in elections while former prisoners were rightly not denied such a right. Had that been the case in this State, a large number of people on all sides of the House over the years would not have been allowed to run and would not have been elected. There are many anomalies which still could be corrected in regard to the franchise and voting rights for citizens. The Minister has been in the House several times and has been part of debates on Seanad reform. All sorts of issues have come up in regard to voting rights for the diaspora and citizens in the North in Presidential elections. We still have a long road to travel in many of these areas.
However, this Bill is very simple and short and its intent is very simple but it is important none the less. It corrects an anomaly and for that reason, I support it.