Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 November 2023
373. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Justice the circumstances in which a person's name will be removed from the bankruptcy register; if a process is being considered by which a person could apply to have their name removed from the register; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50875/23]
View answerThe Bankruptcy Register is held by the Examiner’s Office, an office of the High Court. The Examiner’s Office carries out the administrative functions necessary to enable Bankruptcy applications to be listed before the Court and to carry out certain functions & administrative tasks on foot of Orders made by the Court thereafter. Pursuant to Court Orders & Rules, a manual register of Bankruptcies has been maintained since 1922, and is now accessible online through the Courts Service website at the following link – www.csol.ie.
Under the Bankruptcy Acts, where a person is adjudicated bankrupt his or her property will, as a general rule, automatically vest on the date of adjudication in the Official Assignee, to be realised for the benefit of creditors. While the bankrupt person is now, in normal course, discharged from bankruptcy after one year, any such property which has not yet been sold will, as a general rule, remain vested in the Official Assignee to be sold for the benefit of creditors. The Bankruptcy Amendment Act 2015 introduced an exception to this general rule regarding the family home of the bankrupt person. Under this exception, the bankrupt person’s interest in their home will automatically re-vest in the bankrupt person, if the Official Assignee has not applied to Court for its sale before the third anniversary of the person being adjudicated bankrupt.
As bankruptcy adjudication means that the bankrupt no longer owns their former property and cannot validly enter into any transactions regarding it, and because that property generally remains vested in the Official Assignee after the person is discharged from bankruptcy, the practice has been that solicitors for a purchaser of property will search on the Bankruptcy Register to verify that the vendor has not been adjudicated bankrupt.
The Courts Service cannot remove any of the entries from the Bankruptcy Register unless directed to do so by way of Court Order. There are no plans at present to amend the current operation of the register of bankruptcies.
