The Personal Insolvency Act 2012

The Personal Insolvency Act, 2012 provides for the reform of personal insolvency law and introduces the following non-judicial debt resolution processes:

• a Debt Relief Notice to allow for the write-off of qualifying unsecured debt up to €20,000 subject to a three-year supervision period
• a Debt Settlement Arrangement for the agreed settlement of unsecured debt
• a Personal Insolvency Arrangement for the agreed settlement of secured debt up to €3 million and unsecured debt

The Act also continues the reform of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, begun in the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011. This includes the introduction of automatic discharge from bankruptcy, subject to certain conditions, after 3 years in place of the previous 12 years.

The Act provides for the Insolvency Service of Ireland to operate insolvency arrangements and for the regulation of Personal Insolvency Practitioners.

The required legislation for the appointment of specialist judges of the Circuit Court to deal with applications under the new debt resolution process is also covered by the Act.

The legislation was signed by the President on 26 December 2012.

The Act is available on the legislation pages of the Oireachtas website.

See an explanation of the main provisions of the Act.

Further information on the services available from the Insolvency Service of Ireland can be found on their website.