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

Section 34 of the Personal Insolvency Act provides that the debt relief notice remains in effect for three years from the date on which it is recorded in the register of debt relief notices. This period is called the supervision period.

Sections 34(2), 34(3) and 42 to 44, inclusive, provide for extension of the supervision period by the court, on application to it by the consultancy service, in certain specific situations.

Section 34(5) as currently worded provides for the notification procedure to the insolvency service and the approved intermediary by the registrar of the court of an extension to the supervision period. Deleting the reference to the approved intermediary in subsection (5) will ensure section 34 is consistent with the rest of the 2012 Act, taking account of the fact that the improved intermediaries have no further role following the issue of the DRM. This will avoid difficulties for approved intermediaries in the insolvency service.

In relation to the question of who keeps the debtor's file, over the course of the supervision period under the DRM the insolvency service not the intermediary manages these cases once a DRM is issued.