The long awaited Personal Insolvency Act 2012 was enacted on 26 December 2012. It is expected to become operative in the third quarter of 2013. Once the Act is commenced there will be a State-run Insolvency Service to operate non-judicial debt settlement arrangements. The Act also reforms the existing bankruptcy procedure. The Act is of particular interest to financial institutions and trade creditors. Some debts ("Excluded Debts") cannot form part of insolvency arrangements e.g.
The Minister for Justice and Equality has made an order providing for the commencement of certain provisions of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 with effect from Friday 1 March 2013.
The provisions to be commenced with effect from this date are as follows:
This Act provides for the winding up of IBRC, the appointment of a Special Liquidator and other connected matters. This legislation was signed into law by the President on 7 February 2013.
Following the enactment of the Personal Insolvency Act, the first steps have been taken to implement the new regime in the Irish insolvency landscape with the making of two Ministerial Orders by the Minister for Justice, Mr. Alan Shatter.
The Orders set 1 March 2013 as the establishment date for the Insolvency Service of Ireland which will operate the new debt resolution arrangements provided for in the Act. The Commencement Orders also enables the Insolvency Service to begin authorising approved intermediaries and personal insolvency practitioners.
The Minister for Justice and Equality has brought more provisions of the Insolvency Act 2012 (the Act) into force and has designated 1 March 2013 as the establishment day of the Insolvency Service of Ireland.
Under the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 (Commencement) (No. 2) Order 2013, the following provisions of the Act came into operation on 1 March 2013:
The Ward and Anderson families have been involved in the cinema business in Ireland for over sixty years. Several of the families’ principal cinema assets were operated through a jointly–owned company, Dublin Cinema Group Ltd (DCG). Following a number of disagreements over the years, including the bringing of a derivative action for alleged beach of fiduciary duty against one of the company directors, a petition to wind up the company was brought before the Commercial Court in January 2013.
A recent High Court decision has further demonstrated that failure to comply with the Code of Conduct of Mortgage Arrears (the “Code”) is likely to result in the court refusing to grant an order for possession.
Summary
The Minister for Justice and Equality has made an order which sets the 18th day of January, 2013, as the date on which Part 6 (Specialist Judges of the Circuit Court) of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 comes into operation.
Legislation enabling the immediate liquidation of IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) was signed into law in the early hours of 7 February. Draft legislation was published on 6 February following media speculation that the Irish Government was preparing plans to liquidate IBRC and was promptly brought before both Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). The Minister for Finance stated that immediate action was necessary in order to prevent any action being taken which could have put IBRC’s assets at risk.