Mr. Lorcan O'Connor:

The ISI does not have a view per seon the matter. The legislation provides for a variation to an arrangement for unforeseen circumstances. That could be where a debtor's situation deteriorates or where he or she comes into an inheritance or has an unexpected windfall. In that situation a variation would be expected whereby the dividend paid to creditors would increase.
On a positive note, the DRN envisages people with very low income and assets being offered a write-off of all of their debt, with a payment required only in certain circumstances in which an individual's circumstances improve. I had not envisaged that happening often, but we have already had a situation, about a month ago, in which somebody who had had close to €20,000 written off through a DRN contacted our office and said: "Great news - I have now got a job and I want to start contributing to paying the creditors that I already, in effect, have relief from." That shows that debtors want to meet their obligations if they can, which is a positive note. People are getting a second chance and in doing so looking back to see what they can do.