Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat. I welcome Mr. O'Connor to the committee. First, in regard to the appointment of personal insolvency practitioners, the Minister for Justice and Equality, in response to my parliamentary question yesterday, stated that the ISI had received more than 90 applications to date. Both the Minister and Mr. O'Connor are on record on the expected number of cases that will come before the ISI - some 15,000 cases in the first 12 months, ranging from personal insolvency arrangements and debt relief notices to bankruptcy. Not all of the 90 practitioners who applied for positions as personal insolvency practitioners may be sanctioned, but with a staff of approximately 90 to deal with 15,000 cases, each practitioner will have a caseload of 166 cases. Is there sufficient interest among practitioners in working on cases for the Insolvency Service of Ireland? Will the service be fit for purpose? Is there a sufficient geographical spread of applicants? How many personal insolvency practitioners would be required to meet the expected caseload of 15,000 cases? Will Mr. O'Connor be able to ensure there is a geographical spread so that the practitioners are not concentrated in one area and are spread throughout the regions?

We have a rough idea that the service will start in mid-August. We have discussed the potential flaws and setbacks. The heads of the Bill were published 18 months ago and the enactment of legislation is in the political domain. People are anxious to know when the Insolvency Service of Ireland will be up and running. Mr. O'Connor was appointed in October last year. Will he give an indicative date of when applications can be made? Will the ISI be operational on 7, 14 or 20 August? Is there any certainty about the commencement date?

The Insolvency Service of Ireland is tendering for legal services. The applications for tender are open until 7 August. How certain can the ISI be of having a service up and running when the applications only close on 7 August and it will take time to scrutinise and award the contract and put the successful tender in place?