Speaking following the passage of the Bill, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD, said “I have been keen to ensure that the Insolvency Service of Ireland make an immediate impact upon completion of the legislation. The Director-designate of the Insolvency Service, Mr Lorcan O’Connor, commenced in his role at the end of October 2012. Since his appointment he has established an implementation team to address all operational matters necessary for the opening of the Service as soon as possible.
“The Insolvency Service is working towards a launch date in Quarter 1 of 2013 that will include the opening of an office and website, the launch of an information campaign and the issuing of publications and relevant guidelines.
Intensive efforts are also under way to design and implement the regulatory and IT frameworks required to be in place prior to the Service accepting applications for the new debt solutions. These should be in place during Quarter 2 of 2013.
While it is difficult to ascertain the likely demand on the new Insolvency Service, the tentative estimate of applications for the two main debt resolution processes – the Debt Settlement Arrangement and Personal Insolvency Arrangement – is roughly 15,000 applications plus a further 3,000 to 4,000 applications for Debt Relief Notices in the first full year.
We would also expect about 3,000 bankruptcy applications during this time.
There were approximately 30 bankruptcy adjudications in 2011. Minister Shatter continued “In order to deal with this anticipated volume of work and to facilitate the speedy consideration of insolvency applications, a small new cadre of Specialist Judges of the Circuit Court will be introduced. Rather than seeking to appoint additional judges with the associated extra salary and pension costs to the Exchequer, the Government has decided that eligibility for these new judgeships will be initially confined to serving County Registrars with the necessary legal
qualifications and practice experience. This should have the effect of ensuring that the creation of this new cadre will be largely cost neutral”.
The Bill makes provision for a maximum of eight such specialist judges. The final number will depend on the volume of work but it is likely that six will be appointed in the first instance. The posts will be advertised by the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board which will forward a list of
suitable applicants to Government following which nominees will be recommended to the President for appointment.
The Bill makes provision for the Insolvency Service to draw up guidelines in regard to reasonable living expenses that would be allowed to a debtor in one of the new insolvency processes. Minister Shatter said “In doing this, the Service will have regard to poverty indicators as set out in Government publications on poverty and social inclusion and statistical
information collated by the Central Statistics Office on household income and expenditure. The Service will take into consideration individual circumstances such as differences in the size and composition of households, and the differing needs of persons, having regard to matters
such as their age, health and whether they have a physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual disability”.
With regard to the appointment of personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs) the Minister said “The Insolvency Service will not impose any particular restrictions as to the type of professions of persons who will be licensed to perform this function. However, the entry requirements will be set at a high level to ensure the competency of the Personal Insolvency Practitioners and to promote public confidence in the system. Looking at the experience in other countries, insolvency practitioners tend to be accountants or lawyers, but can also be other professionals in the broad financial services sectors. Professional mediators may also bring their
unique skills to the role. The Service will be responsible for the direct regulation of personal insolvency practitioners”.