Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the Government's decision to move the whole country to level 3 rather than level 5. I want to emphasise that the Tánaiste expressed his complete and absolute confidence in NPHET. We are all very grateful for the work it has done but its role is to advise Government. It is for the Government to take into account the broader considerations that are required in the best interests of the country.

I very much welcome the announcement by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy McEntee, that she is introducing amendments to the personal insolvency legislation to make changes to thresholds of access and means of access. Those changes will provide very significant relief to the people currently faced with dire circumstances. I propose that we avail of this timely opportunity to have a debate in the House on the provisions regarding reasonable expenses that are utilised by the Insolvency Service of Ireland and the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, in assisting people availing of their services to restructure their debt. Some of the categories into which expenses are organised need review. I appreciate that the provisions were reviewed as recently as 2017 but, since then, some of the categories, such as insurance, have become considerably out of kilter and out of step with actual costs. For instance, there is an allocation of €25.82 per month for car insurance, which would amount to an annual insurance cost of €309. I would really like to meet the driver who is able to obtain a premium at that price and to avail of his or her competence to get a similar price for my own insurance. It is timely to review the reasonable living expenses on a line-by-line basis. It may not be necessary to amend all of them but some of them certainly do need to be updated.