This Briefing contains a general summary of developments, and is
not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal
advice should be obtained where appropriate.
On 26 June 2012, the Taoiseach announced that the Personal
Insolvency Bill 2012 (the "Bill") had been approved
by the Government (some two months after its originally-expected
publication date of end-April).1 The leading banks,
following a meeting with the Economic Management Council, then
issued statements regarding their approaches to mortgage arrears
and, in some cases, details of their proposed modification and
forbearance techniques. The Bill itself was published on 29 June,
and sets out further detail on three proposed non-judicial debt
settlement arrangements (the "Arrangements") (with some
variations from the heads of bill published on 25 January 2012 (the
"Heads of Bill")) and the proposed reforms to the
Bankruptcy Act 1988 (the "Bankruptcy Act"). It
is expected to be passed into law
