25th of November 2013 saw in the first debt settlement arrangement in Ireland some 2 months after the legislation the new insolvency arrangements went live.
18th of December 2013 saw the said debt settlement arrangement formally approved by the Circuit Court in Monaghan for a Donegal Health Service Executive in his 40s who had unsecured debts of €117,500 and assets of €5,600.
A number of critical points to emerge from it are:
1. In October the court had granted a protection certificate to allow the debtor 70 days to come to an arrangement.
2. The personal insolvency practitioner said it took it took 12 weeks to conclude the process as compared to 4 weeks in UK.
3. 3 of the country’s major banks were involved in approving the arrangement
4. The creditors were not unanimous in voting for the arrangement but the necessary majority was achieved. Two of the larger creditors accepted the arrangement, two rejected it, one abstained and one, a family member, could not vote under the rules.
5. The debtor’s expenditure allowed exceeded the guidelines for specific and identifiable reasons.
6. The creditors challenged both the debtor’s expenditure and the fees being charged to operate the system.
7. The debts will be settled over a 5 year term and represents a write down of just under 80%.
The debtor’s name will be placed on a register held by the Insolvency Service of Ireland.