The Insolvency Service of Ireland has said its latest report shows a continuing take up of the newly introduced alternative solutions to bankruptcy.
In a report detailing its work for the third quarter of the year, the ISI said that almost 500 new applications were made to its service in the three months from June to September.
The total debt involved in the new cases created in the third quarter was about €186m and the total debt involved in bankruptcy adjudications for the same period was roughly €129m.
The number of Personal Insolvency Arrangements rose by 25% to 309, but both the number of Debt Relief Notices (62) and bankruptcies (83) are down on the same time last year.
A DRN provides for the write-off of a debt up to €35,000 subject to a three year supervision period, while a PIA provides for the restructuring or settlement of secured debt up to €3m and the settlement of unsecured debt over a period of up to six years.
Today's figures show that the average write-off in secured debt - mortgages - per PIA case was 19.7%, while the write-off figure for unsecured debt - such as credit card debt - was 83.7%
"Given the recent increase in the qualifying threshold for DRNs to €35,000 and the new appeals mechanism for debtors, where a creditor has rejected a PIA proposal (expected to be introduced shortly), I expect activity levels in all areas to grow in the coming months," commented ISI director Lorcan O'Connor.
Mr O'Connor noted that creditor acceptance rates for the third quarter have risen to 80% of cases.
A total of 1,463 debt arrangements has been agreed by the ISI since it was established in March 2013 and its cases involve debt of over €3.75 billion
It has arranged a total of 785 bankruptcies since the term was reduced to three years.
