The EU’s long-awaited directive to harmonise insolvency laws has finally been published. Member States have until 22 January 2029 to amend their laws as may be necessary. Our Restructuring & Insolvency team explores why the directive will result in some significant changes to Irish law.
What you need to know
The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Act 2026 (PDF 467KB) was signed into law on 31 March. The legislation provides for changes to the Insolvency Payments Scheme, which protects employees’ pay-related entitlements if their employer becomes insolvent. The Act has not yet commenced.
In what was deemed an “unprecedented” application, the High Court recently refused to confirm the appointment of an interim examiner to a special purpose vehicle incorporated to develop commercial property. The Court determined that the company was not the “type of company for which examinership was designed”. The decision highlights some of the factors that the Court will consider when exercising its discretion to confirm the appointment of an examiner.
A key new directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 1 April 2026.
The High Court of Ireland has in a recent case recognised and enforced the terms of an individual voluntary arrangement (“IVA”) under the law of Northern Ireland.
The Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) (Amendment) Bill 2025 aims to provide greater protection to employees where their employer becomes insolvent. The Bill will allow greater access to a Social Insurance Fund to protect employee pay-related entitlements and claims for historic entitlements over the previous 40 years. The devil is in the detail, however, with very specific caps and limitations.
Irish companies can now avail of various methods with which to merge, migrate or spin off all - or portions of - their businesses with other European Union (“EU”) limited liability companies. In our experience, these restructuring tools can be particularly useful for global post-acquisition integration, carve-out, spin-off or rationalisation projects. This has been made possible by an EU directive introduced into Irish law on 24 May 2023 by the European Union (Cross-Border Conversions, Mergers and Divisions) Regulations 2023 (the “Regulations”).
1 SOLVENCY II 1.1 First batch of EIOPA consultations on technical standards under expected amendments to Solvency II Directive On 1 October 2024, EIOPA published its first batch of consultation papers on technical standards which relate to anticipated changes under the Solvency II Directive1.
A recentPwC reportfound that there has been a slight rise in companies availing of the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (“SCARP”).
SCARP made up 6% of corporate insolvencies in Q2 2024, up from 3% in the previous quarter.
However, overall, the numbers availing of this insolvency option remain low, which is notable given that insolvencies generally are increasing.
Insolvency Trends
In Harrington v Purdue Pharma,1 the United States Supreme Court held that so-called “non-consensual third-party releases” were not permitted in restructuring plans proposed under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. A “third-party release” arises where creditors are asked to vote on a restructuring plan or scheme which not only proposes to release the debtor company (i.e. the company that has petitioned for bankruptcy or is proposing the scheme) from all liability but to also release other third parties from any associated liability.