THE INSOLVENCY SERVICE of Ireland, the state body established to oversee insolvency has reported lower than expected results.

The first quarterly report of the ISI shows that just four arrangements have been approved for people in mortgage distress. That is from 320 applications, with the average agreement seeing 19% of the mortgage debt wiped.

Over 500 cases are being dealt with by the service, which has licenced 128 people as Personal Insolvency Practitioners. 51 people received agreements to reduce unsecured debt, such as credit card or credit union debt. The average size of the agreements in these cases is 77%.

There have been 66 bankruptcies in the first quarter of 2014, which is eight more than the whole of 2013.

Commenting on the report, ISI Director Lorcan O’Connor said that the ISI has had a major impact in its first year, is now dealing with over €300 million of debt, and has acted as a “significant catalyst for change” in the area of personal debt.

He accepted that uptake of the schemes was slow, but said that he was confident it would pick up.

“We are working to restore people who are insolvent to solvency in a fair, transparent and equitable way,” he said.

“While the initial uptake of debt relief schemes by debtors has been slow, I am confident that the number of cases in the system will grow steadily into the future.The trends we see are moving in the right direction .We expect a significant number of completed cases by the end of 2014, and a much higher number of bankruptcies than ever before in Ireland.”

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