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Insolvency Service of Ireland

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 June 2013

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Questions (12, 116)

John McGuinness

Question:

12. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the start date on the new personal insolvency regime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28306/13]

View answer

Niall Collins

Question:

116. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the start date of the new personal insolvency regime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28439/13]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 116 together.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) was established on 1 March 2013 and significant progress has been achieved in a short period of time including: staffing the Service; drafting of Statutory Instruments under the Personal Insolvency Act 2012; launch of an Information campaign; development and launch of the ISI website containing a range of information for members of the public including: guides on each of the 3 new personal insolvency arrangements; guidelines on a reasonable standard of living and reasonable living expenses; and a suite of debt scenarios and possible solutions; operation of a public information line; ongoing liaison with a variety of key stakeholders; preparing for the integration of the Office of the Official Assignee; the development of a comprehensive IT solution to meet the operational needs of the Insolvency Service.

Section 47 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 provides for the authorisation of Approved Intermediaries by the Insolvency Service of Ireland, Section 161 of the Act provides that the ISI may make regulations for the purposes of the control and supervision of Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIPs) and Section 173 of the Act provides for the making of regulations in relation to such matters as bank accounts, accounting records and other financial matters of PIPs. The Insolvency Service is currently in the process of finalising Regulations governing the above matters and I expect to be signing them in the coming days. I understand that the ISI will publish the Regulations on the ISI website, www.isi.gov.ie, shortly thereafter. This will allow those interested in working as Approved Intermediaries or Personal Insolvency Practitioners to apply to the Insolvency Service for authorisation.

It is therefore my expectation that distressed debtors will be in a position to meet with Approved Intermediaries and Personal Insolvency Practitioners and begin to receive initial advice from them in early July. Subsequently, the ISI can begin processing applications shortly thereafter.

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