Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications that have been made to the Insolvency Service of Ireland since its inception to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39604/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) began accepting applications for the three new debt relief solutions introduced by the Personal Insolvency Act 2012, as amended, on 9 September 2013. The ISI has advised that, in the interest of confidentiality, it does not intend to make public details or breakdowns of the number of applications received or being processed at this time. I am further advised that the ISI fully intends to provide quarterly statistics once a statistically meaningful number of applications have been processed.

As I originally indicated in the course of the passage of the Personal Insolvency legislation through the Houses of the Oireachtas, provisional estimates of the number of applications in one full year of operation of the three new debt relief solutions are 15,000 for Debt Settlement Arrangements and Personal Insolvency Arrangements and 4,000 to 5,000 Debt Relief Notices.

I understand that the first Debt Relief Notice will issue within the next month as will the first Protective Certificate that will cover those applying for a Debt Settlement Arrangement or a Personal Insolvency Arrangement. As the Deputy will be aware, Debt Settlement Arrangements and Personal Insolvency Arrangements are conducted in a two stage process. The Protective Certificate at stage one offers a 70 day window for Practitioners to develop a proposal to the satisfaction of the debtor and creditors. This should mean that the first Debt Settlement Arrangement or Personal Insolvency Arrangement will issue later this year - approximately 70 days after the first Protective Certificate is issued. It is important to note that as soon as the Protective Certificate issues, debtors are protected from any action that creditors, subject to the Protective Certificate, may be inclined to take.