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

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 26, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:

"Interpretation (Part 7)

26. In this Part "Act of 1988" means the Bankruptcy Act 1988.".

Amendment No. 4 is a drafting amendment recommended by the Office of the Attorney General. There is no requirement to include a reference to the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961. Acceptance of the amendment will mean the deletion of the current section 26 of the Bill.

Amendment No. 5 is a technical amendment which provides for improvements to the text of section 8 of the Bankruptcy Act 1988. The first change is in regard to the prescription of certain notices that may be issued by a creditor. The change is required in the context of the preparation of draft rules of the superior courts to facilitate the amendments to the Bankruptcy Act effected by the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Failure to classify the required notice under section 8(1) as a prescribed document may call into question the power of the rules committee to specify a form for same, as it is a pre-proceedings document.

The second change aligns the required notice period in the old section 8 of the 1988 Act, which required only a four day notice to the debtor, with the new 14 day notice period in the revised subsection (1)(c) inserted by the 2012 Act as a precondition of a creditor being granted a bankruptcy summons.

Amendment No. 6 is a drafting amendment to correct an error in the text of new section 60A(2) made in the Seanad in regard to the transfer of staff from the Courts Service to the Insolvency Service of Ireland. The correct reference in subsection (2) should be to the whole of the section and not just to subsection (2).

Amendment No. 7 is a technical amendment to improve the text of section 60A(5)(c) by including a specific reference to the superannuation benefits of the staff concerned who may transfer from the Courts Service to the Insolvency Service of Ireland.

Amendment No. 8 proposes a new subsection (2A) in section 85B of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, which was inserted by section 157 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, which concerns the entitlement to discharge from bankruptcy. The new subsection provides that an order of discharge from bankruptcy shall provide that any property of the bankrupt then vested in the official assignee shall be returned to the bankrupt. This provision was inadvertently omitted from the 2012 Act. Of course, this would only arise when all the necessary conditions of the bankruptcy, including satisfaction to the fullest extent possible of the claims of the creditors, had been made. This would permit any surplus which remained to be returned to the former bankrupt.

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