Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond briefly by noting it is not about naming and shaming anyone. For example, one might ask what is the purpose of the protective certificate.

The protective certificate is to protect the debtor from being sued by individuals who are owed money during the period between when the protective certificate is granted and the engagement with the personal insolvency practitioner trying to negotiate a resolution of the debt situation of the individual debtor between the debtor and the creditors and trying to bring about a debt settlement resolution or to enter into an arrangement. This is a protection because, at that stage, unless this arrangement is put in place there may well be creditors who do not know whether someone is engaged in this arrangement. It may well be that the initial phase would involve the personal insolvency practitioner meeting with the debtor to go through all of their debts and to present a proposal to creditors having regard to their income and assets and personal financial needs for themselves or their family. Creditors might not otherwise know. One could end up with a debtor, within two or three weeks of engaging with a personal insolvency practitioner, being the happy or unhappy recipient of multiple court proceedings. Once this measure is in place and one has a protective certificate, before anyone issues proceedings against someone to recover debt, they will be able to consult the register and see whether the person he or she is going to sue is the beneficiary of a protective certificate, because if he or she is then there is no purpose in issuing proceedings.

This is a protective measure in the context of protecting individuals and also if a personal insolvency arrangement, PIA, or debt settlement arrangement, DSA, is put in place it provides protection during the period of the financial resolution arrangements. It is important that information is available but the information does not disclose the extent of any individual’s debts. It does not disclose the nature of the arrangement he or she has entered into. The measure does reflect the practice in other jurisdictions dealing with debt settlement resolution issues. For many years we have published the names of individuals who are bankrupt. There are issues also with regard to individuals who are within that process who may not be owed any money by a debtor – it may be an institution or an individual from whom the debtor seeks to borrow money - and protecting them in knowing that someone is going through a debt resolution process and information can be accessed. This is important information not just for creditors, but for others with whom someone who is participating in a debt resolution process may engage.

There is a whole series of reasons for the measure; it is not about naming and shaming. It reflects a consistent approach that is in other European jurisdictions. During the course of the Irish Presidency, I have been engaged in dealing with the new proposed insolvency regulation which seeks to ensure European-wide recognition of debt settlement arrangements that do not involve bankruptcy and to ensure that there is transparency to the entering into these arrangements for the very reasons I have just mentioned right across Europe. Part and parcel of that architecture envisages that there would be this type of register maintained and that if I am doing business in, for example, Belgium, and there are individuals in Belgium who are willing to give me credit, they can check a register as to whether I am an individual who is currently subject to and engaged in a debt resolution process. It would give them an insight into the extent to which perhaps I should be given credit. There are very important reasons that there is a need to maintain this type of register.