The space, incentivisation and rewards we have given for greed within our housing strategy have done us great damage.

I believe it is the custom not to speak about people not in the House.

I was just pointing out that it is normally the practice not to refer to persons or bodies in the House, but perhaps it does not apply.

It seemed to be a general statement about all local authorities.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Yesterday, there was an informal meeting of the World Trade Organization trade-related and intellectual property rules, TRIPS, council. Next week, there will be a formal meeting at which the WTO will decide on a proposal for a temporary TRIPS waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, which would allow global south countries to scale up production and access to vaccines. This proposal is being brought by the World Health Organization and over 100 coun…

The intellectual property right that needs to be waived under the existing TRIPS structure is not simply to do with the patents. It is also about the intellectual property relating to manufacturing know-how. The WHO, UNAIDS and others who have worked on previous global health crises tell us that the TRIPS waiver is needed. We must listen to them. We are all very proud of Dr. Michael Ryan and his work at the WHO. Let us show that we are listening to him and his colleagues, as global experts. It is absolutely crucial…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”, and (b) by the deletion of subsection (5)(b)(ii).”. This set of amendments addresses a serious problem and obstacle of concern within the original legislation. It is around the inequity of how we treat the experience of insolvency, a very distressing experience for anybody. I…

I thank Senator Martin for his support. We will not agree on all the amendments and that is fine but I thank him for his support. To clarify, the concern is not just what is being counted against one's income in a personal insolvency case. The problem is access to the PIP. The very point of access is that once one's income goes over €60 per month, having paid reasonable living expenses one no longer qualifies. However, one might have a job paying €25,000 or €30,000 and anything within what is called reasonable livi…

I am partially reassured but I ask the Minister of State to clarify a couple of points. There is one social welfare payment explicitly mentioned, namely, children's allowance. Why is that payment specifically mentioned but others are not? Am I to understand from the Minister of State's description - because it is not in the Act - that, in calculating net disposable income, social welfare payments which may contribute to the achievement of reasonable living expenses will be discounted in the calculation of net? If p…

I will be delighted to hear this is being dealt with in a place other than this section.

I thank the Minister. That deals with my concern because the matter is being dealt with in a different place. However, I may introduce an amendment on the qualified child payment on Report Stage. Children's allowance is the general payment but qualified child increase is another payment specifically around children. I will take an advisement on the calculation of net disposable income and how social welfare payments play out in that. I will take on good faith the Minister of State's assertion that social welfare pa…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2), by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b): “(ba) any social protection payments of which a debtor may be in receipt, shall not be taken into account in calculating his or her income;”; and (b) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”.”.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2), by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b): “(ba) any social protection payments which have been subject to a means test and which a debtor qualifies to receive shall not be taken into account in calculating his or her income;”; and (b) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”.…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”, and (b) in subsection (5)(b)(ii), by the insertion of the following after “child benefit”: “, jobseeker’s allowance, jobseeker’s benefit, jobseeker’s transitional payment, disability allowance, carer’s allowance, back to education allowance, one parent family payment, working…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”, and (b) in subsection (5)(b)(ii), by the insertion of the following after “child benefit”: “, jobseeker’s transitional payment, one parent family payment, working family payment, back to education allowance”.”.

I move amendment No. 6: In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act 2. Section 26 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2)(c), by the substitution of “€1,500” for “€400”, and (b) in subsection (5)(b)(ii), by the insertion of “, and the working family payment” after “child benefit”.”.

When we talk about creditors it is important to remember that not all creditors are necessarily big banking institutions. Creditors are sometimes businesses, service providers, subcontractors and workers who have been impacted. It is important. I support the concept of a "confirmation of truth", which is being introduced in section 11 of this Bill. It is reasonable that instead of a declaration in writing, which can literally be just a declaration in which one says what one wishes, we would ask for a confirmation o…

I move amendment No. 8: In page 10, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 99 of Principal Act 14. Section 99 of the Principal Act is amended— (a) in subsection (2)(b), by the insertion of “in respect of secured debts less than €2,000,000” after “Personal Insolvency Arrangement”, and (b) in subsection 2, by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (b): “(ba) the maximum duration of a Personal Insolvency Arrangement in respect of secured debts exceeding €2,000,000 shall…

On one level, I agree with the Minister of State that the real concern is bankruptcy. I will be frank in saying that I believe our bankruptcy legislation is too lax for those with very large-scale debts, although not for the majority. I find it difficult to understand situations where people who declare bankruptcy are, a few years later, engaged in multimillion euro property deals and receiving praise for it in the newspapers. I agree there are concerns about bankruptcy. However, those problems are caused by the pu…

I move amendment No. 9: In page 11, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: "(e) may only be made in respect of debt not exceeding €1,000,000.". The Bill provides for a confirmation-of-truth mechanism. The confirmation of truth is a little more than a declaration you simply write yourself. At least, it has some consequence if you do not write it. The confirmation-of-truth mechanism, while appropriate in general, must be considered where there is a debt of over €1 million. The confirmation of truth can be ma…