Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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598. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to change the rules governing the insolvency service given the low uptake so far and the fact that certain banks have said they will veto any deal that involves a write down of mortgage debt; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32617/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The enactment of the Personal Insolvency Act in December 2012, and the establishment of the Insolvency Service of Ireland in March 2013, constituted a far-reaching, substantial and comprehensive reform of our insolvency and bankruptcy law. While the volume of cases processed by ISI up until now falls short of expectations, the caseload continues to increase month on month, as debtors become familiar with the solutions available to them. To date, almost 1000 applications have been made to the ISI and almost 200 cases have already reached a successful conclusion. There have been 164 bankruptcies so far this year. Up to 61% of residual debt has been written off in some cases involving secured debt and over 80% of debt was written off in cases of unsecured debt. So far this year, the ISI is dealing with over €0.5 billion of debt, and it expects the increase in cases to continue over the coming months. The ISI has now published a Debt Settlement Arrangement Protocol which it developed in conjunction with the key stakeholders and which is expected to result in the faster development of proposals, faster acceptance by creditors and higher acceptance rates by creditors, as happened in England and Wales when a similar Protocol was introduced there some years ago. The ISI is currently working on developing a similar Protocol for the Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA), which it hopes will be agreed later this year and again, this should facilitate a more efficient and streamlined process. In addition, I understand that the ISI will be launching an information campaign later this year in an effort to reach out to those struggling with debt and make it clear to them that there is a solution for everyone. I will continue together with the ISI to keep its effectiveness under careful ongoing review and to address any issues that are required to be addressed.