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The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD, will this evening deliver his Second Stage Speech on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013 in Dáil Éireann.

The key purpose of this Bill is to restore our law on aspects of repossession to where it was intended to be under legislation enacted in 2009.

In addition, the Bill will ensure that, in any future repossession proceedings concerning a borrower’s principal residence, the court may adjourn the proceedings so that a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) may be fully explored as an alternative to repossession.

Extracts from Minister Shatter’s speech:

"In passing the 2006 Bill [which became the Land and Convenancing Law Reform Act 2009] into law, the [then] Fianna Fail led Government and both Houses of the Oireachtas clearly determined that the repossession arrangements which had existed for centuries should continue in place. Even in the later stages of the passage of the Bill, in July 2009, after it had become absolutely clear that the property bubble had burst and the Celtic Tiger had expired, when various changes and amendments were proposed by the previous Government and made to Part 9 of the Bill, nothing was done by it to alter the security of a lending institution."

"However, the High Court, in 2011, decided that the law is now not as it was intended to be in the 2009 Act. There is, as one High Court Judge put it, a lacuna in the existing law and this must be corrected. The High Court interpretation has left us in a situation of doubt regarding the availability of the intended legal repossession remedies. This must be corrected simply because our legal system must provide full legal certainty in relation to the repossession rights of lenders when there is a serious default by the borrower."

"Current uncertainty in relation to the remedies available to lending institutions in the case of mortgages created prior to 1 December 2009 originated in the 2011 case, Start Mortgages v.Gunn…"

"I have to say that, sadly, it came as no surprise that the current leader of Fianna Fail, in his recent Ard Fheis address to the party faithful, committed his party to opposing this Bill. Essentially, what the Fianna Fail party is doing, in opposing this Bill, is opposing the reinstatement of provisions in our law that it itself, in Government, proposed, drafted and supported throughout the passage of the 2009 Act through the Oireachtas."

"On this particular Bill, no credibility should be given to any commentary by Fianna Fail either inside or outside this House. I have great confidence that the Irish electorate will see through the type of self-serving politics currently practiced by Fianna Fail. Deputy Martin, having asserted he would no longer engage in a parliamentary Punch and Judy show, presented himself on this issue last Saturday in the guise of Pinnochio."

"It is political opportunism and hypocrisy of the worst kind for Fianna Fail and Deputy Micheal Martin to oppose this Bill. It is the type of politics Fianna Fail has, over the years, specialised in but which Deputy Martin assured everyone he was abandoning. It is feigning a concern for the plight of home owners burdened by unsustainable debt, in mortgage arrears, whose difficulties Fianna Fail, in Government, ignored following the property collapse in 2007 and the fiscal and economic crisis of 2008. In this context, no one should forget that, in their fourteen continuous years in Government and, more particularly, in the 2007 to 2011 period when Deputy Martin was a senior Minister in Government, he and his Cabinet colleagues did nothing to reform our out-dated insolvency laws to assist those in unsustainable debt. Moreover, when enacting the 2009 Act, the then Fianna Fail dominated Government failed to include in it any protective measure such as that contained in the Personal Insolvency Act for those overwhelmed by debt at risk of having their homes repossessed and of eviction. This Bill contains such a protective measure. It is of immense importance to mortgage holders struggling under the burden of unsustainable debt that the provisions of this Bill are linked to the possibility of entering into a Personal Insolvency Arrangement and a person so indebted continuing to reside in his or her family home."

"This will mean that lending institutions will not be allowed to proceed directly to the repossession stage without first engaging in good faith in the alternative measures provided for in the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Where they do not do so, they will know that, should they seek to repossess a family home, the court may adjourn court proceedings to enable the possibility of the difficulties being resolved by the conclusion of a Personal Insolvency Arrangement.

"I again reiterate that home repossessions should be a last resort. Financial institutions have an obligation to engage constructively with home owners whose mortgage payments are in arrears. It is of crucial importance that they do so and that full information on the options available to them be provided to people who find themselves in such difficulties. It is also of importance that letters, sent by such institutions to indebted home owners in mortgage arrears, detail the options available to them in dealing directly with the financial institution and, where appropriate, in engaging with a Personal Insolvency Practitioner, to consider the possibility of negotiating a Personal Insolvency Arrangement. It is also of crucial importance that those in genuine financial difficulty with mortgage arrears engage with their lenders and I again encourage them to do so. Section 2

A full copy of the speech is available on