In some jurisdictions, such as the US, student loans cannot be written off in a bankruptcy scenario, for obvious reasons.
When the bank provided you with the loans it invested in your future. The bank believed that you would qualify and work hard to repay the money.
Technically speaking, under Irish legislation, student loans could be written off in a DSA/PIA/Bankruptcy. However, I believe that the bank would veto any DSA that you submitted. Whilst the bank's veto is to be curtailed under new legislation, I do not believe that any court would over turn a bank's veto on a student loan. As a PIP, I would not be associated with promoting such a DSA.
DSAs/PIAs are to be used for dealing with unsustainable debt. A student loan that was utilised to improve someone's earning capacity would not generally be considered to be unsustainable. What you need to do is to sit down with the bank and agree a realistic repayment plan, based on your future earning capacity.
Jim Stafford