The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012

The long awaited Personal Insolvency Bill (the "Bill") was published on Friday, 29 June 2012 and provides for significant changes to the personal insolvency regime in Ireland. However, it does not differ greatly from the general framework for personal insolvency reform published earlier this year. Some key points are as follows:

• The period for automatic discharge from bankruptcy is to be reduced from twelve to three years 
• Bankruptcy will only be available where a debtor's liabilities are over €20,000 
• An independent body known as the Insolvency Service is to be established, which will oversee three new debt settlement mechanisms contained in the Bill: (1) Debt Relief Notices, (2) Debt Settlement Arrangements and (3) Personal Insolvency Arrangements