Who will the new Personal Insolvency Trustees be?

As per Section 161 (se below) of the new Act, the Insolvency Service will appoint the PIPs.


161​
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.—The Insolvency Service, with the consent of the Minister, 10
may and, if directed by the Minister to do so and in accordance
with the terms of the direction, shall, following consultation with the
Minister for Finance and with any other person or body as the Insolvency
Service deems appropriate or as the Minister directs, by regulations
provide for any of the following, for the purposes of the con- 15
trol and supervision of personal insolvency practitioners and the
protection of debtors and creditors who are or may become parties
to Debt Settlement Arrangements or Personal Insolvency
Arrangements:
(a) the procedures governing— 20
(i) the authorisation of persons to carry on practice as
personal insolvency practitioners; and
(ii) the termination, at a person’s request, of his or her
authorisation to carry on practice as a personal insolvency
practitioner; 25
(b) the standards to be observed in the performance of their
functions by personal insolvency practitioners with particular
reference to—​

(i) the public interest;
(ii) the duties owed to debtors and creditors who are or 30
may become parties to Debt Settlement Arrangements
or Personal Insolvency Arrangements;
(iii) the professional and ethical conduct of personal insolvency
practitioners;
(iv) the confidentiality of the information of debtors and 35
creditors who are or may become parties to Debt
Settlement Arrangements or Personal Insolvency
Arrangements; and
(v) conflicts of interest;
(​
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c) the qualifications (including levels of training, education 40
and experience) or any other requirements (including
required standards of competence, fitness and probity
and required minimum levels of professional indemnity
148
insurance) for the authorisation of persons to carry on
practice as personal insolvency practitioners;
(d) the terms on which indemnity against losses is to be available
to personal insolvency practitioners under any policy
5 of indemnity insurance and the circumstances in which
the right to such indemnity is to be excluded or modified;
(e) the records to be maintained and the information and
returns to be provided to the Insolvency Service by personal
insolvency practitioners; and
10 (f) the circumstances and purposes for which a personal insolvency
practitioner may charge fees or costs or seek to​

recover outlays.

Jim Stafford
 
I have an interest in making an application to become an Insolvency Trustee, I believe my background and qualifications may make me well suited and qualified. Whilst not a qualified Accountant I do have years of practical experience of working with debtors that are struggling and negotiations with their lenders, I am happy to declare my bias that not only Accountants are capable of completing this task.

That said I am still unclear about the application process, is it still up in the air..?
 
It is expected that the Insolvency Service of Ireland (the statutory body overseeing the new regime) will have application forms available for people who wish to apply for registration as Personal Insolvency Practitioners in March.

The Insolvency Service has not yet formally specified what competence levels will be required. However, in various talks that Lorcan O'Connor (the Director Designate) has recently given, he has indicated that the Service will be expecting applicants to have the necessary legal and financial skill sets, combined with a deep knowledge of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 together with strong negotiation skills. I would suggest that Personal Insolvency Practitioners should also have strong counselling skills!

Jim Stafford
 
I got the impression at a recent seminar that there will only be a handful of big probably accountancy firms licenced, offices in main cities and a team on the road then to cover the rest of the country. Don't know how they get the referrals, maybe same as the present debt management companies, internet searchs or ads on TV.

I spoke to one of the speakers who worked for this type of company in UK and he said that was how the system worked over there so presume we will follow on the same way. Didn't get the impression there would be many job opportunities in this, seemed to be more geared at existing accountancy and legal firms.

Also spoke to an accountant who was there to see if he could generate some extra business this way as he was already doing quite a bit of debt advice, just a one man band operation, he came away with the impression that he would actually lose business as it would not be practical to apply to be a PIP due to costs/processes so his current clients would no longer be paying him.
 
I think its correct to say that the Accountancy firms and Legal firms will be hugely interested in this but there will be opportunities for others who have the necessary skills.

I think the biggest challenge for PIPs will be making arrangements to get paid from the debtors. Getting an upfront payment of 5000 may not be such a big deal in the bigger cases but in the smaller cases, its hard to see how a debt strapped client is going to pay 5000 euro over the counter to get started. If PIPs are not careful, they could end up doing a lot of work for nowt.

Jeremy Masding of PTSB is on record as saying that PIPs should not be allowed advertise to attract clients and this is apparently the law in the UK. No ambulance chasers allowed. If a similar rule is introduced here, it may be difficult for individual PIPs to get up and running.

Jim, Its interesting that you say that the Insolvency Service of Ireland will have application forms available in March for PIPs. I had previously understood that the Insolvency Service Ireland will be responsible for regulating PIPs but will have no part in the hiring of PIPs. Maybe I got this wrong.

I too, intend to apply, to become a PIP.
 
Just to clarify, the Insolvency Service of Ireland will not be hiring PIPs, but will be responsible for authorising individuals to act as PIPs. The initial step in the authorisation procedure will be the completion of an application form.

Jim Stafford
 
I understood the debtors didn't pay anything upfront as such, the payment to the PIP came from the creditors pot of money assuming the debtor had some income to be making regular payments.
 
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