The Justice Minister Alan Shatter will sign a commencement order for a new bankruptcy law later today. As it stands, when someone declares bankruptcy in Ireland it stands for 12 years. The new legislation will reduce this amount of time to only 3 years.

One of the driving forces behind this decision is to try and prevent the recent trend of “bankruptcy tourism” where people are moving from Ireland in oreder to file bankruptcy.  Ross Maguire from New Beginning, which advocates for those in debt, believes that the introduction of the new bankruptcy procedures will have a dramatic effect on the landscape.

He said recently “Now debtors who have either had their debt settlement arrangements refused or who are unable to do arrangements will have a mechanism whereby they can have all their debts written off.”