James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Senator's concerns. The purpose of the insolvency Acts is to provide an effective and clear resolution in a reasonable period of time, balancing the rights of both creditors and debtors and to get those applicants back to being economically active as quickly as possible. There will always be elements on either side of that and elements of unfairness at the edges but I agree with the policy of getting people back to being economically active as reasonably and quickly as possible. Any kind of protracted insolvency runs counter to that.

While a bankruptcy may only be year now, there are protections in cases where people sought bankruptcy in bad faith and sought to mislead the courts or lenders. Courts have extended bankruptcies for up to eight years. Those protections are available. As far as I know, though I am subject to correction, there is nothing in place for what we might call the lottery winner - cases where somebody comes out of bankruptcy and wins the lotto.There will always be such exceptions but, on balance, unfortunately, I must oppose the amendment.