James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Under section 23 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, the Insolvency Service of Ireland, ISI, is required to prepare and issue guidelines as to what constitutes a reasonable standard of living and reasonable living expenses, RLE, taking into account a list of specified criteria.These are now generally known as RLE guidelines. Section 23 also requires the ISI to re-examine and reissue these guidelines at least annually and to publish them on its website. Reasonable living expenses are adjusted according to factors like household composition, childcare or whether a car is needed, just like the Vincentian partnership model. The work of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice was the basis in 2013 for the ISI model of reasonable living expenses and the ISI has continued to work closely with the partnership over subsequent years in developing and renewing the RLE guidelines.

The ISI also consults regularly on the reasonable living expenses with stakeholders representing debtors and creditors and with personal insolvency practitioners and creditors also. The consensus among stakeholders is that the guidelines are working well.

There are some differences between the model used by the Vincentian partnership and that developed by the insolvency service. Some specific items included in the Vincentian partnership model were not included in the insolvency reasonable living expenses. However, the ISI already publishes on its website a detailed background information document explaining these differences. One factor is that the Vincentian partnership standard is a long-term model while the insolvency service guidelines are designed to apply only for a limited period where a person is subject to an insolvency arrangement. The ISI states that in 2020, the duration of all three types of insolvency arrangements from start to successful completion averaged slightly over two years.

The insolvency service has informed the Department of Justice that it intends to hold a full public consultation on reasonable living expenses in 2021 to give everyone the opportunity to provide their views. We welcome all submissions on this issue. This consultation is based on important recent work by the Vincentian partnership, which completed a rebasing exercise on its own model late last year. This adjusted its figures to reflect changes in lifestyle and mood since the partnership's original research was carried out over a decade ago. Given the material already published by the insolvency service, a consultation that is already in preparation and the likely changes to the guidelines that will result, it does not appear the amendment proposed is needed at this point. I ask the Senator to consider withdrawing them.