Mr. Lorcan O'Connor:

Two things happened last year on the regulatory side. First, the Insolvency Service of Ireland began authorising personal insolvency practitioners and, second, the Central Bank introduced debt management regulations. I welcome these two developments. Debt advice is extremely important and it is important that the quality of that advice be appropriate because there can be very significant consequences for those acting on it. We want to ensure there is no unnecessary overlap or duplication. A PIP is statutorily obliged to set out all of the options for his or her client, including alternatives to the Personal Insolvency Act. In that sense, they will lay out all of the options. The difficulty that has arisen which I suggest is an unintended consequence is the exemptions PIPs have from the debt management licensing regulatory framework to the extent that they are performing their duties under the Act. However, situations may arise where an informal deal is appropriate and in that instance we are of the view that if it is possible, the service should be covered also within the remit of the ISI or that at least there should not necessarily be duplication that could result in difficulties for the practitioner as well as the debtor. We would not like to see a debtor going to a practitioner and spending a number of hours setting out his or her financial position - it is probably an emotional process - at the end of which the practitioner will state he or she does know how to help him or her but it involves X and that the debtor needs to go next door to talk to somebody who can supply the service when he or she will have to go through the emotional process again. We are working closely with the Department of Finance, the Department of Justice and Equality and the Central Bank to try to square the circle to ensure there will not be an undue overlap.