We use Google Analytics to see which pages are read and how the site is used, so we know what to improve. This only runs if you accept. See our privacy notice for details.

Back to bills
Enacted Dáil
No. 58 of 2012

Personal Insolvency Bill 2012

Public bill · Government · Presented

Creates new ways for people who cannot pay their debts to reach an orderly settlement without going bankrupt. It provides for debt write-offs of up to €20,000 for people with very low income and few assets, negotiated repayment arrangements for unsecured debts, and arrangements covering mortgages and other secured debts up to €3 million. It also establishes the Insolvency Service of Ireland, regulates personal insolvency practitioners, raises the threshold for creditors seeking bankruptcy and reduces automatic discharge from bankruptcy from 12 years to three, subject to conditions.

Formal long title

Bill entitled an Act to amend the law relating to insolvency, to amend the Bankruptcy Act 1988, to provide for the establishment and functions of a body to be known as Seirbhís Dócmhainneachta na hÉireann or, in the English language, the Insolvency Service of Ireland, and, in particular, in the interests of the common good (including the stability of the financial system in the State) and having regard to the following objectives—(a) the need to ameliorate the difficulties experienced by debtors in discharging their indebtedness due to insolvency and thereby lessen the adverse consequences for economic activity in the State, (b) the need to enable creditors to recover debts due to them by insolvent debtors to the extent that the means of those debtors reasonably permits, in an orderly and rational manner, and (c) the need to enable insolvent debtors to resolve their indebtedness (including by determining that debts stand discharged in certain circumstances) in an orderly and rational manner without recourse to bankruptcy, and to thereby facilitate the active participation of such persons in economic activity in the State, to provide for additional mechanisms and arrangements relating to insolvency to facilitate the achievement of those objectives, to provide for the appointment, functions, powers and jurisdiction of new judges of the circuit court to be styled specialist judges of the circuit court and, for that purpose, to amend the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961 and the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 and certain other enactments, to provide for the regulation, supervision and discipline of personal insolvency practitioners, and to provide for connected matters

Last updated 16 April 2018

Sponsor
  • Minister for Justice and Equality Primary
Progress
  • First Stage
    Dáil
  • Second Stage
    Dáil
  • Committee Stage
    Dáil
  • Report Stage
    Dáil
  • Fifth Stage
    Dáil
  • Second Stage
    Seanad
  • Committee Stage
    Seanad
  • Report Stage
    Seanad
  • Fifth Stage
    Seanad Enacted
  • Enacted
    Enacted
Debates
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: From the Seanad
    Dáil
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages
    Seanad
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed)
    Seanad
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed)
    Seanad
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Committee Stage
    Seanad
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Second Stage
    Seanad
  • Personal Insolvency Bill 2012: Committee Stage
    Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Comments

Sign in to comment →