I INSOLVENCY LAW, POLICY AND PROCEDURE
i Statutory framework and substantive law
Ireland is a sovereign state in Europe and a member of the European Union since 1973. The legal system in Ireland is a combination of statute and common law in which a large emphasis is placed on precedent.
The principal statutes governing insolvency law in Ireland are as follows:
a the Companies Acts 2014, which came into operation on 1 June 2015, consolidating and replacing the Companies Acts 1963 to 2013;
b Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council (applicable when a debtor has its centre of main interests (COMI) in an EU Member State) (the Recast Regulation);
c the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 (relevant from the perspective of statutory receivers appointed by the National Asset Management Agency); and
d the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Act 2013 (which introduced the concept of Special Liquidation) (the IBRC Act).
ii Policy
Remedies in the area of insolvency and bankruptcy involved enforcement of security, realisation of a debtor's assets and the penalisation of resisting debtors. In recent years, however, there has been a subtle shift towards a 'rescue culture' in respect of certain companies. This has been motivated by a desire to achieve value for all stakeholders.
For those businesses that are in difficulty but can demonstrate that they have a reasonable prospect of survival examinership remains an attractive model for formal corporate restructuring and recovery. Examinership is a rehabilitative procedure that, broadly speaking, is a hybrid of Chapter 11 in the United States and administration in England and Wales. It can be thought as a debtor-in-possession model.
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Originally published by Law Business Research Ltd.
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