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
- Minister for Justice and Equality Primary
- First StageDáil
- Second StageDáil
- Committee StageDáil
- Report StageDáil
- Fifth StageDáil
- Second StageSeanad
- Committee StageSeanad
- Report StageSeanad
- Fifth StageSeanad Enacted
- EnactedEnacted
- 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