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

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 35, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 5 of Act of 2012

41. Section 5 of the Act of 2012 is amended by substituting the following for subsection (2):“(2) An application to the Circuit Court under this Act shall be made in the circuit in which--

(a) the debtor to whom the application relates is residing at the time of the making of the application or has resided within one year of the time of the making of the application, or

(b) the debtor to whom the application relates has a place of business at the time of the making of the application or has had a place of business within one year of the time of the making of the application.”.”.

Amendment No. 9 is a technical drafting amendment recommended by the Office of the Attorney General to better refer to the particular Circuit Court to which an application is made for one of the debt resolution processes under the Personal Insolvency Act 2012.

Amendment No. 29 is also a technical drafting amendment recommended by the Office of the Attorney General to make it clear that an appeal against a decision of the Circuit Court under the Personal Insolvency Act shall lie to the High Court sitting in Dublin, with the exception of the situation under section 169(4) of that Act, which relates to appeals to the Circuit Court against certain decisions of the Insolvency Service of Ireland regarding the regulation of personal insolvency practitioners. This technical amendment will allow any such appeals to be heard in Dublin by a judge nominated by the President of the High Court for that purpose, which is desirable given the specialised nature of the legislation and the need to ensure that appeals can be dealt with in a timely manner. This is already the case for most appeals which will, as far as possible, be heard and disposed of on affidavit and this proposed amendment extends this to any case in which a hearing may be conducted on oral evidence. Without amendment of the 1936 Act, appeals from determinations of the Circuit Court made on oral evidence would in the ordinary course be held before the High Court on Circuit sitting in the appeal town designated for the appeal, which could give rise to delays in dealing with appeals. We are anxious to ensure no such delays occur.

See this speech in context