Legislation Changes - Republic of Ireland bankruptcy period reduced from 3 years to 1 year
New legislation approved today (1 Dec 2015) will bring the Republic of Ireland legislation in line with Northern Ireland, England and Wales and reduce the bankruptcy period of 3 years to 1 year.
This change is a further development on the changes introduced in December 2013, when bankruptcy period was shortened from 15 years to 3 years. From a review of the statistics, the number of bankruptcy orders made in Republic of Ireland still remains low in comparison to Northern Ireland:
The number of bankruptcies in Q1 2015 in the Republic of Ireland was the highest on record for any quarter. 94% of these bankruptcy orders were debtor petitions.
As Aisling Muldoon from our Personal Insolvency Department explains:
"This change in the Republic's bankruptcy laws will bring the bankruptcy period in line with our Northern Ireland legislation. There have been widespread reports of countless ROI debtors, many of whom were major players in the Celtic Tiger years, moving home to NI or GB since the economic downturn in 2008; they subsequently used the NI/GB bankruptcy process to wipe the slate clean and be out of bankruptcy in 12 months. It will be interesting to see if this amendment will be the shot in the arm needed to deal with a significant chunk of Ireland's personal debt problem which still remains unresolved."
Ailsing Muldoon is Manager of our Personal Insolvency and Bankruptcy division and can be contacted on 028 8775 2990 or by email: aisling.muldoon@cavanaghkelly.com
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