Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The process as outlined in the Bill means that a creditor will first have to have obtained a judgment against a debtor in respect of a debt and may then make an application to the District Court for an attachment of earnings order or a deduction from payments where the judgment concerned is for a liquidated sum of not less than €500 but no greater than €4,000. The debtor will then have to furnish the court with a statement of means and information on dependants and liabilities for it to be able to determine the protected earnings rate of the debtor. Section 7 deals with the statement of means. The statement of means to be provided by a debtor is a burden given the amount of information required to be provided. On top of the worry of personal debt, it is unreasonable to have imposed on a debtor the burden of preparing such an extensive number of information documents for the court. The possibility of the details provided being inaccurate as a result of the sheer volume of information sought is high. This will undermine, through no fault of the debtor, the protected earnings rate to be determined by the court.

On Second Stage there were some very valid concerns raised, including by Senator Jillian van Turnhout, about the fact that one would be washing people’s dirty laundry in public. All of their financial details would be discussed in open court. Considering the amounts of money in question, this seems to be going too far. Therefore, we have serious concerns about the section and hope the Minister of State will reconsider, even at this late stage.