Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Group 5 concerns amendments to the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 in regard to debt relief notices. There are two amendments, Nos. 9 and 12. Amendment No. 9 makes two changes to section 27 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, which deals with the initiation of a debt relief notice process by a debtor. A new subsection (4) extends the provisions of the previous subsection by now adding that where the debtor has provided information in regard to his or her application for a debt relief notice, he or she must also give written consent to the making by the approved intermediary of an inquiry under subsection (9) and to the disclosure by the approved intermediary of personal data of the debtor, to the extent necessary for such an enquiry. Such enquiries would be made to creditors or perhaps to a relevant State authority such as the Revenue Commissioners.

New subsections (9) and (10) replace the previous subsections (9) to (12) in section 27 and provide an explicit power to the approved intermediary to verify the value of a debt or other liability of the debtor with the creditor concerned in regard to the application for a debt relief notice. The creditor is required to respond to the request for information from the approved intermediary within 21 days. Otherwise, the approved intermediary is entitled to presume that the amount of the debt owed is that claimed by the debtor.

Amendment No. 12 corrects a typographical error in the text of the new subsection (3) of section 37 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, contained in section 49 of the Bill as passed by the Seanad. The section concerns possible payments by the debtor to end a debt relief notice supervision period earlier than after three years.