Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am more interested in taking decisions and action rather than just having meetings. We tend to meet on a monthly basis and devote one Monday in the month to seven or eight Cabinet sub-committee meetings. They start at eight in the morning and go through the day. That is why the committee will meet again in March. It is sometimes interfered with by requirements to attend meetings elsewhere.

The Personal Insolvency Act 2012 has been passed and the legislation introduced three new forms of non-judicial debt settlement arrangement. The Act also reduces the automatic discharge period of bankruptcy from 12 years to three years. The Insolvency Service of Ireland, ISI, was established to regulate the new debt settlement arrangements and it is open to accept applications from applicants in September 2013. As of February, there are 111 personal insolvency practitioners who develop debt settlement arrangements and personal insolvency arrangements. These are two of the debt solutions. There are also 63 individuals capable of acting as approved intermediaries who can develop a debt relief notice. The insolvency service has indicated that there are hundreds of cases in the pipeline at different stages of verification by the ISI before it can be forwarded to the court for a decision. The court may issue a protective certificate, which offers debtors legal protection for a period of 70 days, during which time an arrangement between the creditor or creditors and the insolvent debtor can be put together. To date, two debt relief notices, two debt settlement arrangements and one personal insolvency arrangements have been approved. There is, as yet, no definitive evidence of any banks vetoing proposals. There is some evidence that some banks are trying to reach arrangements with clients short of entering into a formal insolvency process. Banks are clearly becoming more focused in their attempts to reduce the mortgage arrears book and the existence of the ISI is helping as a catalyst in this process.

Since March 2013, the Central Bank has set quarterly targets for six banks to make offers of sustainable solutions, and I mean sustainable solutions, to customers with arrears in excess of 90 days. These banks are Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank and KBC Bank. The Central Bank has conducted an audit of the banks quarter 2 2013 results and found the banks have achieved their targets for sustainable solutions of 20% of those in arrears for 90 days or more. At the end of September 2013, the lenders in total report that they had issued proposals to 43% of mortgage accounts in arrears, as against a target of 30%. The Central Bank will shortly make undertaken audit of the banks progress against quarter 3 and quarter 4 targets for 2013.

The introduction of the mortgage to rent scheme, which facilitates families to stay in their homes through the transfer of ownership to a local authority or an approved housing body is another issue. To date, almost 1,975 cases have been put forward by the lenders and, of these, 1,360 are being followed through.

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