{"id":3292,"date":"2014-01-21T15:50:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T15:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/?p=3292"},"modified":"2020-10-20T11:45:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T10:45:10","slug":"irish-insolvency-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/irish-insolvency-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish Insolvency since 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the beginning of 2010 we were looking at the birth of NAMA and wondering what the government might do to help individual consumers who found themselves facing personal insolvency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There was a frenzy of activity as banks, builders and government finalized the commencement of the implementation of NAMA. All the talk was of how the government was \u2018bailing out the banks\u2019 and people wondered what reliefs might be introduced for individuals. The main players in the mortgage market at that time were almost invisible in terms of seeking to repossess homes, even where mortgage re-payments were substantially in arrears and the government at the time imposed a twelve months moratorium on such repossessions by banks and other lenders which it had \u2018bailed out\u2019. The so-called \u2018sub-prime lenders\u2019 were not constrained in this way and could remorselessly pursue their security through the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mountain of unsecured debt in 2010 was compared to a giant \nfloating iceberg where only the tip of the problem was visible. Some of \nthe statistics at the time were nevertheless compelling with at least \n2.5 million credit cards issued by Irish institutions and 90% of credit \ncard companies failing to check the income of applicants. We estimated \nspending in Ireland on credit cards at that time at \u20ac12 billion per \nannum and we estimated private sector credit supply at \u20ac375 billion. At \nthat time, mortgage lending was estimated at just \u20ac150 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We reported the increasing numbers of Irish consumers who were \nfinding that they were insolvent with quite a diverse range of \ncontributory factors triggering this state: a relationship break-ups; \nunemployment (then almost 13%); underemployment due to only part-time \nwork being available; freeze on overtime or on shift working; illness \u2013 \nself, spouse, partner or child; business failure; fall in house prices \n& therefore insolvent on the basis of asset value; lack of credit \nsuch as working capital & therefore insolvent on a cash flow basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We described the non-financial effects of such enormous personal debt\n on people as increased stress, aggravated health problems, shame and \nstigma, loss of profession and even an increased risk of self harm. The \nstrain on couples and families resulted in break-up, separation and \ndivorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We described the impacts on society as increases in poverty and \ncrime, reduced productivity and work performance and the inhibitions, \nobstacles and barriers to the development of an entrepreneurial society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2010, people were looking to the government to put in place a\n framework to enable them to address their unsecured debt problems and \nto be able to do so in a finite period of time, short enough to give \nhope and to be meaningful and not a life sentence.  The hope was that \nthe government would implement the key recommendations made by The Law \nReform Commission of Ireland (LRCI) in its consultation paper \u2018Personal \nDebt Management and Debt Enforcement\u2019 which was published in September \n2009 and put appropriate legislation in place which would mirror the \nlegislative regimes in the UK and other EU countries where a large \nnumber of modern enlightened solutions were available at reasonable cost\n to the consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happened?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The personal insolvency legislation was finally enacted two years \nlater at the end of 2012 in the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. It \nintroduced three new solutions for the personally insolvent and also \nmade some significant changes to the existing bankruptcy laws. During \nthe course of 2013 the Insolvency Service of Ireland or ISI was set up \nand the infrastructure for implementation of the new laws was put in \nplace and Personal Insolvency Practitioners were authorized and licensed\n to practice. Unfortunately, the government made some crucial mistakes \nin the legislation, chief of which is now recognized as their obsession \nwith crossing too many \u2018T\u2019s and dotting too many \u2018I\u2019s. The legislation \nis simply too fussy and detailed and seeks to cover every possible \neventuality and circumstance. The three new solutions were supposed to \nbe \u2018non-judicial\u2019 but of course one of the first things you have to do \nto avail of either of the two major solutions \u2013 the DSA or Debt \nSettlement Arrangement and the PIA or Personal Insolvency Arrangement \u2013 \nis to run along to the courts and obtain a \u2018Protective Certificate\u2019. \nWhile the role of the courts is generally of a \u2018rubber-stamping\u2019 nature,\n nevertheless it is an additional layer of cost which the unfortunate \ndebtor has to bear. It is now 2014 and the number of solutions accepted \nby creditors is still incredibly low \u2013 only one DSA accepted during 2013\n and not a single PIA accepted. While the ISI expects a surge in \nactivity in 2014, the slow rate of uptake has forced the government to \nseek ways of simplifying procedures and it looks like the first \n\u2018simplification\u2019 will be the introduction in 2014 of what is described \nas a \u2018protocol DSA\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find out more about all aspects of insolvency and the complete \nrange of available financial solutions in your jurisdiction, please \ncontact National Debt Relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early 2010, people were looking to the government to put in place a framework to enable them to address their unsecured debt problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-debt-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3299,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}