The Minister for Finance has said that the publicity aspect of the new personal insolvency service may dissuade some applicants, but is still confident of its success, the Irish Times reported. Michael Noonan was responding to questions about the Insolvency Service of Ireland which has begun taking applications today from people who want to restructure their debts. The development means that in some cases people will be able to get some of their borrowings written off if creditors agree to deals. However, people who avail of the service will have their names published on a register.

The spouse of a bankrupt individual may need to buy their partner’s share of the family home in order to remain in the property, it was explained yesterday, the Irish Times reported. Chris Lehane, the State-appointed official in charge of the Insolvency Service of Ireland, was speaking to RTÉ news ahead of the new service which will start taking applications next week. Mr Lehane, the official assignee of bankruptcy, is the court-appointed official whose role is to assist bankrupts in their obligations to their creditors.

Ireland will get euro zone support to smoothly exit its bailout programme at the end of this year, the head of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the European Parliament Thursday, the Irish Times reported. “Ireland’s performed very well in its programme and will exit the programme, but there will be measures to support its gradual exit,” he said. “I can’t give you any details on the way that will be formed yet ... but there will be support to make sure that it is a good exit and not a temporary exit,” Mr Dijsselbloem said.

Bank of Ireland has attempted to defend its dealings with distressed mortgage holders saying it cannot do special deals as it has to remain profitable, the Irish Times reported. Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher said the institution was offering deals to customers that it was confident would help to keep them in their homes.

Banks have been accused of trying to stop mortgage holders in arrears opting for new state-backed insolvency deals, the Independent reported. The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) is due to start taking applications for debt deals from Monday. Its arrival was supposed to the big fix for the mortgage crisis. But now it has emerged that banks are writing to homeowners in mortgage trouble trying to persuade them to take a deal outside the new service.

Next Monday sees the new insolvency service open for business. The body has already had 4,500 inquiries and its boss, Lorcan O’Connor, expects thousands of people to avail of its services, the Irish Times reported in a commentary. Overborrowed and insolvent individuals will now have a couple of ways out of their problems other than fully fledged bankruptcy. The insolvency service is only part of the Government/troika strategy for dealing with overindebtedness.

Permanent TSB bank, which is more than 99 per cent owned by the State, booked a €429 million impairment charge on its non-performing mortgage loans in the first half of this year, the Irish Times reported. This was €5 million less than in the same period of 2012 but highlights the scale of the challenge still facing the bank as it seeks to tackle its mortgage arrears. Of this figure, €236 million of the impairment related to home loans in the Republic and €102 million to buy-to-let investment properties.

Five years after a huge property crash devastated the Irish economy, prices are finally stabilising, but a booming urban market where supply is scarce and competition fierce is raising concerns about a new bubble in the capital, Reuters reported. House prices quadrupled on a decade of easy credit during the boom years that earned Ireland the sobriquet Celtic Tiger, then fell by more than half from 2007, leading the country into an EU/IMF bailout, a costly bank rescue and leaving almost one in five homeowners behind on their mortgage payments.

Ireland’s 7,400 pubs have combined debts of more than €2 billion and are continuing to feel the pinch from the recession, according to a report on the sector by AIB in conjunction with the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland (VFI), the Irish Times reported. That equates to €270,000 per pub and excludes lending for other purposes that might be secured on a bar. According to the report, 53 per cent of respondents said they had a good relationship with their bank while 18 per cent said it was “poor”.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.