Lawyers for Ulster Bank have applied to a US court seeking to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings of property developer Sean Dunne so the bank can proceed with its own bankruptcy proceedings against him in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Ulster Bank said that Mr Dunne’s filing for bankruptcy in the US was the “culmination of extraordinary efforts” by him to “avoid the application of Irish law to an Irish national with respect to Irish debts and Irish assets”.

Ireland’s EU-IMF bailout has been broadly successful, according to a new reports by a leading European thinktank, but risks remain that a second bailout will be required down the line, the Irish Times reported. In an analysis of the manner in which three euro area countries have been bailed out, the report concludes that Ireland’s bailout has been a success, Portugal’s a “potential” success and Greece’s a failure.

Ireland’s new insolvency service will pursue and prosecute borrowers fraudulently seeking debt forgiveness, said Lorcan O’Connor, head of the new agency, Bloomberg reported. Borrowers who lie about their finances face fines of as much as 100,000 euros ($130,000) or as long as five years in prison, according to laws which created the Insolvency Service of Ireland, known as the ISI, last month.

Orpington Structured Finance I has gross assets of €1.7 billion, which would make it one of the most valuable firms in Ireland. Except it has no employees. It has no buildings or machinery. Nor does it pay any tax. It is one of hundreds of so-called financial-vehicle corporations, which are companies set up to house or trade in securitised investments, in other words to package and resell loans.

Professional debt negotiators will be allowed to set their own rates and charge upfront fees from struggling debtors going through the State's new insolvency process, The Independent reported. According to confidential draft regulations to be published later this month, personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs) can charge initial consultation or assessment fees and the actual rates will be left to the practitioners themselves. The Insolvency Service of Ireland says the rates will be dictated by the "market" and it won't be issuing guidelines on how much PIPs should charge.

Extra efforts to engage with the unemployed to get them back to work are required, according to the EU/IMF troika after its latest visit to Ireland, the Irish Times reported. The troika also says that strict implementation of this year’s budget is essential to keep the country on track to exit the bailout. In a statement today on its tenth review of the implementation of the bailout programme the troika said significant progress had been made but remaining challenges required continuing policy efforts.

The Central Bank has published a new plan aimed at helping those in financial distress but who do not qualify for personal insolvency, the Irish Times reported. The pilot scheme will “enhance co-operation between lenders of secured and unsecured debt in order to fairly resolve distressed debt for the borrower”, according to the bank. It is understood the scheme will in some cases include a write-down of some debt. “Restructuring by lenders will be necessary to deal with many different indebtedness scenarios”, the bank adds in a document published on its website this afternoon.

The High Court has ordered the winding up of developer John McCabe’s main trading company in the Republic following a petition from a creditor that has been pursuing the business for eight months, the Irish Times reported. Following a petition from MCR Personnel, the court ordered that McCabe Builders Ltd be wound up and appointed Kieran Wallace of KPMG as liquidator. Last autumn, the National Asset Management Agency appointed Jim Hamilton and David O’Connor of BDO as receivers over the company’s properties, in effect giving them control over it.

Ireland has resolved a standoff with international lenders over the timing of so-called "stress tests" of its bailed-out banks that threatened to cloud its exit from an EU-IMF rescue deal at the end of the year, four sources close to the matter said, the Irish Times reported. The government has agreed the tests - aimed at gauging banks' resilience to economic shocks - could take place ahead of a Europe-wide exercise, in line with the European Union and International Monetary Fund's desire for the banks to be checked before the end of Ireland's sovereign bailout deal in December.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland has confirmed that a VAT rate of 23% will be applied to the fees paid to insolvency practitioners, RTÉ News reported. The service, which will regulate the work of Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIPS), was established in March. The Independent Mortgage Advisers Federation has criticised the application of VAT, saying it will make the insolvency process more expensive. "This will cause concern for both debtors and creditors," said Michael Dowling. Mr Dowling said: "Ultimately, this is going to impact on the cost on the process.