The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) has finally published details of what reasonable standard of living struggling borrowers will have to survive on.
Overdue and overhyped, the details have finally emerged in a 50-page document that calculates to the last cent how individuals can spend what money they have.
The publication of the document and the details will please few. They are both harsh in the sense of how prescriptive they are, with a clear thrifty accountants eye on what constitutes a "reasonable standard of living". Yet provide a decent income, with the officials of the ISI incorporating the views of voluntary groups like the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice.
As the head of the Insolvency Service, Lorcan O'Connor, said today: the document does not mean "people should be punished and live only as subsistence level."
Following the breathless hype of mothers being forced out of work to look after their children to avoid costly childcare (although it they state that changing creche is an option) and of claims of people being told to hand over cars, the guidelines allow individuals to come to arrangements with their insolvency adviser on how to spend their money depending on their personal circumstances.
But it is clear that for many lifestyles will change irrevocably.
For anyone with a car they will have justify that they need it. When looking at the cost of housing the guidelines state that alternative forms of accommodation must be looked at. Read that as meaning that some people may be better off renting their home.
The details are extraordinary. For a single person, about €247 per month has been set aside for food, €35 for clothing and €125 for social inclusion.
Gone are foreign holidays. And they allow for just €5 a week to be spent on mobile phones. Private medical insurance and fancy TV subscription packages are not entirely ruled out as it will depend on what individuals want to prioritise.
Many will be shocked at what will confront them in the months and years ahead. But that is to misunderstand the details published today. It is not a punishment for buying a home at the height of the Celtic Tiger.
Alongside today's living standards guidelines was confirmation that from June the ISI is open for business with three ways a struggling borrower can get relief depending on the levels of their loans and assets.
To deter people from strategically defaulting on their loans the guidelines on living standards may appear harsh. But in return to signing up to them many indebted households out there may see the first easing of their burden.
