Debt Recovery Update: Enforcement Remedies Created And Eliminated

Repayment of debt has been the topic that has dominated global and Irish headlines over the past few years. Indeed, Ireland's Law Reform Commission devoted two annual conferences to the subject of debt and debt management in that time. It also published a detailed analysis of the civil debt enforcement regime here and made numerous recommendations for its reform. Among those was the abolition of imprisonment of debtors, arising out of the non-payment of civil debts. This recommendation is now being implemented, when commenced, by the enactment of the Civil Debt (Procedures) Act 20151.

Abolition of Imprisonment for Non-Payment of Judgment Debt

In the context of bad debt, it is worth noting the frequency with which creditors employed this option in the past. The Courts Service Annual Report for 2014 noted that just 72 committal orders were made by the District Courts across the country. Even then, the Irish Prison Service confirmed that in 2014, a total of 23 debtors were committed to prison, arising out of non-payment of civil debt i.e. for contempt of court-ordered instalment repayments. When compared with the numbers of judgments marked across the Irish Courts in the preceding years; 29,867 in 2012; 24,920 in 2013; and 14,875 in 2014, it seems that the committal order was not a remedy normally used by creditors, bar...