Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are different types of debtor, including those with few assets. For example, in the case of debt relief notices, there are people with over €400 worth of assets so they have to fall into one of the other two arrangements, upon which a PIP gets involved. Not only is there a potential up-front fee for the complex cases but, as Mr. O'Connor points out, there is nothing his service can do to stop an up-front fee from being charged so that the PIP gets paid at all times. There is also an additional application charge which the service has laid down. I think it is €100 for the debt relief notice, €200 for the debt settlement arrangement and €500 for the personal insolvency arrangement. We could potentially see a debtor being out a couple of thousand euro, even if the arrangement is rejected, as a result of this process.