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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Mar 2015

Vol. 871 No. 2

Personal Solvency (Amendment) Bill 2015: First Stage

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Bankruptcy Act 1988; and to provide for related matters.

We, the people of this great nation, have stood at many crossroads. Of late, however, we have danced at very few of them. We have subsisted to survive but we need no longer survive in order to subsist. Our country's battle has been against overwhelming odds. It has been against the gombeen men of international finance and those foreign forces which arrayed themselves to take what chunks they may from the body of Ireland. Ireland has honoured any obligation she has to the international community and well the members of that community know it. The international community has taken its pound of flesh and supped the blood of this fair land. Yet still we stand. Let no man deceive us or tell us that our victory is certain - we still stand. We are rebuilding and we are recovering. However, we need to do a great deal more for many more of our people and we need to do it now. That is why I humbly bring this Bill before the House.

Our economic collapse caused devastation and havoc and gave rise to significant levels of stress and distress, all of which hang like a cloud of poisonous gas over this great nation. This has been ongoing for a period equal to the entire duration of the First World War and most of that of the Second World War added together. Far too many have carried far too great a burden. Far too many have been forced to emigrate. The fire that sparks this nation has been doused in far too many homes. Too many have gone to bed hungry. Too many have gone without heat. Too many have gone without light. Too many have cried themselves to sleep with dreams of fear and foreboding rather than with more pleasant thoughts. This has not gone away and it remains the daily experience of middle Ireland; of the people who do not shout their embarrassments from the rooftops but who live the daily horror of fear and dread. No longer are the plain people of Ireland those who eat their dinner in the middle of the day. The plain people of Ireland, if I may use that archaic term, often have no dinner.

The destruction of wealth and society and the lives of families, farmers, professionals and civil and public servants has asked more of the Irish than any nation has a right to demand of her people. For too long and for too many, the soul of this nation has been suppressed. Those to whom I referred earlier have failed to extinguish the soul of this great nation, which flickers like a guttering candle. It is high time to cup our hands around the small flame of recovery. This is a task of the first magnitude. We need to sustain the flame's energy and to put fire back into the bellies of our people. It is time for Ireland to look after her own.

With the passage of the Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Act 2012 and the amendments it made to the Bankruptcy Act of 1988, the Government brought about a revolution in the law and in the public perception of bankruptcy. I salute it for that. Long gone, and rightly so, are the days when bankruptcy was seen as being shameful. The establishment by the Government of the Insolvency Service of Ireland and the reduction of the period of bankruptcy from 12 years to three are matters for which this House, the Taoiseach and the Government can take just credit. However, this House and all the parties in it ought not to be in the business of taking credit for matters of this nature. Everyone in this House should be in the business of providing leadership and remedying glaring legislative defects. It is our obligation, as legislators, to anticipate the next steps and deliver the legislative response that will best exploit those steps for the good of the country. That is our task. It is no burden, it is our bounden duty.

Consider the banks and financial institutions. Their motive is profit, their bible is greed and their god is money. Their ways are not our ways. Just as we believed it was recovering, Ireland is, at a stroke coming under renewed attack. This country faces another wave of financial attacks and it is the obligation of this House to level the playing field. We have an obligation to protect our people. This obligation is one from which no Member of or party in this House can shirk. We are all collectively responsible. We might not be able to stop the sale of loans but the House can certainly level the playing field.

The proposals contained in the Bill are modest and simple and they will prove effective. All I am seeking to do with this Bill is to reduce the horrible and unrelenting levels of stress which are still holding the people of this country prisoner. With all-party support, the Bill will have an immediate, positive and direct impact on emigration, marriage break-ups and suicides. It would be a major boon to the very large number of people in middle Ireland who live in constant fear and terror of the knock on the door. It would also facilitate the return to Ireland of entrepreneurs who previously fled her shores. No one is immune from the hardship which has affected all sectors of society. I have no time for, and even less interest in, arguments about who has been hurt the most or who should be made to feel the hurt a little more. I have no interest in the media circus that might surround high-profile cases of people who previously had great wealth but who are no longer rich. I would much prefer it if that media circus followed the trials and tribulations of families in every constituency. I refer here to families of all backgrounds whose members want to sleep safe in their homes at night, do an honest day's work and enjoy this country as it should be enjoyed. The citizens of this country should be able to enjoy it as much as the tourists get to do. Each day in our constituencies we are reminded of whose voice we are and we know whose collective voice we must become.

The Bill proposes reducing the current three-year term of bankruptcy to a single year. We have a common rugby team, a common cricket team and we have a common goal to do the best for our people, North and South. This Bill will simply harmonise the period of bankruptcy throughout Ireland. It will also harmonise the position in Ireland with that which obtains in the UK, our nearest neighbour and greatest trading partner.

A certain number of people will take advantage of the Bill. I hope they do so. We must shift our bankruptcy culture from one of shame and embarrassment to one that recognises that sometimes things do not work out the way they were intended, that somehow the giving of the loan by the bank was imprudent given the overview the bank ought to have had on the economy. This Bill will remove the poisoned cloud of fear that stalks so many homes. It will enable people to take their rightful place in society, to learn from failure, to build again and to give rise to the rebirth of this great nation.

This Bill will have a profound although intangible impact on the economic fortunes of this country, which the Taoiseach is trying to promote, and the lives of a great many others who will never need to avail of bankruptcy. I could show Members all the correspondence I have received. It will have a far broader and more positive impact on society than we could imagine or measure. The legislation will empower the distressed borrower, who in many cases just needs time to think, to get his mojo back and to start again. It will level the proverbial playing field because bankruptcy will have lost its fear and stigma for many, thus strengthening their bargaining position with unregulated hedge funds and banks in general. These funds will be constrained to appreciate the new commercial reality of a more balanced negotiating position which would encourage them to reach sustainable deals in a shorter time period which would allow people get their mojo back and to create jobs again and allow our recovery to grow exponentially.

I have no doubt that for every one person who would contemplate bankruptcy under this proposed legislation there would be legions who would feel empowered by its very existence. It would bring about an immediate and exponential bonus of rallying to the flag of the recovery of middle Ireland.

I caution this House about fixing an arbitrary longer period for let us say, 18 months or two years, for such a political compromise would be seen for what it is and what it would be, a mere flapping about the edges undoing the great good that this proposal would deliver to a great many people.

It would damage confidence. Some say that it is the little things that matter. Others say that it is the little things that trip one up. Little and short though this Bill is, this House will go a long way before it will have the opportunity by doing so little to do so much real good for so many of the plain people of Ireland.

I urge the Government to accept the Bill and to bring it into law.

Is the Bill opposed?

No, the Bill is not being opposed.

Question put and agreed to.

Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Question put and agreed to.
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