Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The question being put to me on this point is why it has been set at €1 million, why it is so high for the District Court and it is for that exact reason. The fact is that someone may be in a more modest house but, because of the location, it is worth more. That does not mean the person has more disposable income or any greater ability than a person in a house that is twice the size in a different part of the country. By putting this in place at this level, the question for me is why we are going so high for something that should be more straightforward in the District Court but it is to account for the people who are in that situation, looking at it from the other side. Obviously, for anything beyond that, cases will go into the Circuit Court and the High Court, where inevitably it becomes more complex. This is very much to take into consideration the fact that there are discrepancies there and that just because someone has a home and a farm that is worth €1 million does not mean he or she has as much disposable income as someone else who might have something valued at €1 million.