THE JUSTICE MINISTER Alan Shatter has ruled out allowing jewellery such as wedding or engagement rings to be exempt from the forthcoming overhaul of Ireland’s bankruptcy laws – rejecting opposition proposals to allow indebted people hang onto such rings.
The minister yesterday rejected an amendment to the Personal Insolvency Bill tabled by Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins, who had wanted to insert a legal clause allowing people entering debt settlement proceedings to withhold “one item of jewellery of ceremonial significance” from their assets.
This would mean that people with major debts would be legally allowed to exclude a wedding or engagement ring from any list of assets they were putting together ahead of a court arrangement to sell off some of those assets and repay the debts.
Fianna Fáil said the move would mean people could keep jewellery which had a higher sentimental value than a commercial one – but Shatter said the amendment could permit people to hang on to assets which were much more valuable than the debts they could cover.
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