Published on 29th June, the Bill proposes three new non-judicial debt settlement processes ie Debt Relief Notices, Debt Settlement Arrangements and Personal Insolvency Arrangements together with the establishment of an insolvency Service to oversee these processes and the amendment of current bankruptcy legislation;

1. Debt Relief Notices propose to allow for the writing off of qualifying unsecured debt up to a maximum of €20,000, eg credit card debt, utility bills, etc. This option is only available to persons with very limited disposable income.
2. Debt Settlement Arrangements propose to allow for writing off of qualifying unsecured debt in excess of €20,000 for insolvent individuals by agreement with creditors but cannot be applied to any debt that is secured. A personal insolvency trustee would be required to administer the scheme which would be legally binding.
3. Personal Insolvency Arrangements propose to allow for settlement of qualifying secured debts of up to €3 million and all other debt, by agreement with creditors where the individual is insolvent. Again a personal insolvency trustee would be required to administer the scheme which would be legally binding and which could run for a period of up to six years.

It is proposed that the new ‘insolvency service’ will provide for an authorisation process for personal insolvency practictioners. It is further proposed that the current bankruptcy legislation will provide for the reduction of the discharge period from 12 to 3 years in certain circumstances.