Cabinet formally approved bankruptcy bill over the phone

The Cabinet formally approved the one-year bankruptcy bill in a meeting over the phone yesterday.

The issue was discussed at length at the weekly meeting of ministers on Tuesday but according to sources a number of technical matters required clarification.

Officials progressed the bill to the point where ministers were able to approve its passage over the phone yesterday afternoon.

“It was a case of dotting i’s and crossing t’s,” said one senior Government source.

The approval of the bill by Cabinet paves the way for it to be passed through the Dáil and Seanad and enacted before Christmas, as Tánaiste Joan Burton committed to in recent weeks.

Ms Burton said the Cabinet decision was a victory for common sense.

The campaign to reduce the term of bankruptcy from three years to one year has been spearheaded by Labour TD Willie Penrose.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Penrose said he is delighted that the Cabinet has agreed to change the law, noting that its passage was not assured.

“I am thrilled, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, but it is a fundamental change. It has been hailed as such,” Mr Penrose said.

At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the issue of housing dominated proceedings.

Dublin Mid West TD Robert Dowds has been charged to report back to the party next week as to what can be done to increase the supply of houses quickly.

Meanwhile, Renua Ireland has opened an internal investigation into one of its own candidates after he was named as a tax defaulter on the latest list released by the Revenue Commissioners.

Desmond Hayes, who is running for the party in the Limerick City constituency and is an accountant and tax consultant by trade, was named on the defaulters list due to a €1,250 fine linked to his failure to file a tax return.

In a statement last night Mr Hayes said the four- figure fine is connected to his “marriage breakdown” and that there is nothing untoward in what happened.

However, he accepted that as a potential public representative he is accountable to other people and that he wanted to be up-front about what happened, after being outed on the tax defaulters list.

Renua’s ethics officer Karl Deeter is understood to have opened an investigation into the matter. However, the party last night said Mr Hayes remains a candidate for it in the general election.