Dublin has announced an overhaul of its bankruptcy and personal insolvency laws designed to tackle a growing mortgage debt crisis and curb “bankruptcy tourism” to the UK, the Financial Times reported. Legislation published on Wednesday would enable people struggling with unsustainable debts to emerge from bankruptcy after three years, rather than the current 12 years. It would also enable consumers on a case-by-case basis to write down mortgage debt while continuing to live in their homes.

The National Asset Management Agency is believed to have lined up a receiver to take control of assets at Treasury Holdings if an agreement is not reached on the repayment of the developer’s loans by this afternoon, the Irish Times reported. Nama set a 4pm deadline Wednesday for Treasury to repay its near €900 million loans to the state agency. It is understood that accounting firm Ernst Young has been lined up by Nama to take charge of the assets involved if no arrangement has been reached with Treasury by the deadline.

The complex issue of how to deal with unsustainable mortgages in out-of-court debt settlements may be concluded in three months’ time – but the operation of the new system could prove as difficult as its construction, the Irish Times reported in an analysis. Under the proposed changes, the Government aims to introduce non-judicial debt settlements, allowing people an alternative to the costly and protracted court system of resolving debts. But the changes are fraught with difficulties.

Ireland will have to deal with mortgage debt as it overhauls bankruptcy laws and introduces a personal insolvency regime, Brian Hayes, a junior government minister, said, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The government wants to shorten bankruptcy terms and introduce out-of-court debt settlements. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Thursday the government had agreed with the country’s bailout partners that publication of “the very technically difficult bill” be delayed until the end-April.

Former billionaire Sean Quinn has been declared bankrupt in a Dublin court after his bankruptcy declaration was annulled by a Belfast court, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Quinn, who famously claimed to have just £11,000 in the bank, failed to have his bankruptcy declared North of the Border, after the Irish Banking Resolution Corporation successfully argued that his centre of main interest was in Ireland. The bank claimed that a European Directive that applies in insolvency cases stipulates that a person’s centre of main interest has to be ascertainable to third parties, such as creditors.

A famed entrepreneur who was once rated Ireland's richest person was declared bankrupt yesterday as a bank pursues him for debts exceeding €2.1 billion ($3.3 billion), The New Zealand Herald reported. Lawyers for tycoon Sean Quinn withdrew his opposition to a Republic of Ireland bankruptcy order sought by the former Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless lender at the centre of Ireland's calamitous property crash.

Ireland's High Court declared Sean Quinn, once the country's richest men, bankrupt on Monday, preventing the former tycoon from returning to the corporate arena for at least five years and marking yet another twist in a complex legal battle over nearly 3 billion euros (2.4 billion pounds) in debts, Reuters reported. Quinn, 65, who turned a rural quarrying operation on his family farm into a 4 billion euro globe-spanning empire, has come to personify the rapid unravelling of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy.

A property developer who owes Ireland's so-called bad bank some 300 million euros ($383 million) followed his similarly indebted brother in declaring himself bankrupt in Britain, insolvency papers showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Brothers Raymond and Danny Grehan, who bought a Dublin site in 2005 for a record 82 million euros per acre, were ordered by an Irish court to pay the state-run National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) 312 million and 308 million euros respectively.

Former tycoon Sean Quinn could be effectively barred from relaunching his business career after a Belfast court ruled that his bankruptcy should be dealt with in Dublin, The Press Association reported. The 65-year-old sought bankruptcy in Northern Ireland, where he could have started a fresh career after 12 months, but now faces a wait of up to 12 years in the Irish Republic. The businessman's multibillion-euro empire collapsed over the last two years on the back of massive stock market gambles on the share price of the former Anglo Irish Bank.

Ireland clearly needs further financial assistance on “non-market terms”, the chief economist with Citigroup, Willem Buiter, said during a visit to Dublin, the Irish Times reported. The former member of the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England said the most attractive option from Ireland’s point of view would be a reduction on the interest it pays on an outstanding €30 billion in promissory notes, issued mostly to deal with the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.