Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The subject matter of amendments Nos. 11, 17, 18, 21 and 22 relates to court consideration of applications for the new debt resolution processes.

Amendment No. 11 amends section 31 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, which concerns the supporting documentation that the insolvency service must furnish to the appropriate court when making the application for a debt relief notice. The requirement to include the documents referred to in section 29(2), paragraphs (e) and (f), which relate to the debtor's consent to the processing of their documents and the making of inquiries to verify information by the insolvency service, is deleted.

The other change in amendment No. 11 and the same changes in amendments Nos. 17, 18, 21 and 22 have the same intention, which is to repeal the same subsection (4) in each of sections 31, 61, 95, 78 and 115 of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. That subsection provides that a court may hear additional evidence or information in a hearing of an application under an insolvency process otherwise than in public.

Further discussion with the Office of the Attorney General has led to the conclusion that it would be desirable to repeal these subsections and to remove the exceptional provision that, where a court requires additional information or evidence, it could hear it other than in public. The repeal will avoid any aspersions on the legality of the primary court sitting process in insolvency applications being in public. No special protection is provided for any particular element of the debtor's application being considered by the judge. It has not been possible to devise a "legally safe" provision to allow the judge discretion to hold back the disclosure of any part of an insolvency application from public view during the sitting - for example, orally, by way of a court TV screen, or by some other means. The insolvency sitting would have to be no different to any other court sitting. This position reflects the wider issues and, indeed, tensions associated with ensuring that justice be done and be seen to be done in public.