Bankruptcy In Ireland: A Process Best Avoided?

There has been some recent publicity about a well known celebrity chef in Northern Ireland attempting to reach a deal with his creditors to avert a petition to have him declared bankrupt. Apparently, the celebrity is working with his advisers to reach what is called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement ("IVA") with creditors. The IVA is a relatively cheap, courtsupervised, legal process that is available in parts of the United Kingdom which allows individuals to work with an insolvency practitioner to reach agreement with creditors and thereby avoid the publicity and stigma of bankruptcy.

So why don't we hear more about IVA's in Ireland? The simply reason is that there is really no equivalent to the IVA in Ireland. We have a court-controlled system for seeking to make arrangements with creditors but it is such an unwieldy, expensive, process-laden system and is so unattractive to overburdened debtors and to out-of-pocket creditors that proceeding with a