Measures to help those in mortgage difficulties are being worked on and will be published as soon as possible, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil.
“We are very concerned about the difficulties in which mortgage holders find themselves when these matters are brought before the courts”.
The Tánaiste was responding to Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, who highlighted comments by Master of the High Court Edmund Honohan who had, she said, “set out very clearly the catastrophic consequences of aggressive banks pursuing desperate people laden with debts they cannot meet”.
Ms McDonald said the law is “clearly” inadequate. “It is agreed by Government that we need an overhaul of bankruptcy and we certainly need mechanisms to deal with debt resolution,” she said.
In the High Court yesterday, Mr Honohan called for the law to be updated to protect those who could not meet their debts. He also called for an element of “debt forgiveness”.
Mr Honohan sharply criticised banks and creditors for pursuing “to the bitter end” debtors who could not pay, just to write off debts in order to gain a tax benefit. He said that such meaningless “accountancy exercises” caused social disquiet and were driving some people to suicide.
Ms McDonald said the heads of the Bill had not yet been agreed for the Personal Insolvency Bill.
She accused the Government of failing so far “to act to protect the interests of distressed debtors and mortgage holders”.
She called on Mr Gilmore to “address this matter with some urgency” and give a commitment that the legislation would be published “with the haste it requires”.
She said the 2012 planned publication date for the Bill “is far too late” and she accused him of long-fingering the legislation.
Mr Gilmore insisted there was no long-fingering of the Bill.
He said that while the insolvency Bill was planned for next year, some interim measures are planned for the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. This is in the course of being drafted with a view to publication as soon as possible this year, he added.