id="_mcePaste">

class="Body">

class="MsoNormal">The first director of newly-established Insolvency Service of Ireland has been named.

class="MsoNormal">Lorcan O’ Connor, a director of business restructuring with accountants Deloitte, will take up his new role in October. With more than 15 years experience running Deloitte’s insolvency practice he has the background for the job.

class="MsoNormal">The Insolvency Service is the centrepiece of the changes to the centuries-old Irish bankruptcy laws and O’ Connor will be at the front of it.

class="MsoNormal">For the tens of thousands of people struggling to repay mortgages and personal loans and credit card debt, the legislation updating the insolvency regime can’t come soon enough.

class="MsoNormal">But it will be some time before O’ Connor’s new agency will be up and running. The Personal Insolvency Bill has yet to go through the Dáil and with nearly a hundred staff to recruit it will be the middle of next year before it is fully operational.

class="MsoNormal">O’ Connor, a former adviser to the Department of Transport, will have plenty of work on his hands. The Department of Justice, which has drawn up the legislation, estimates that 21,000 people will apply for one the three debt restructuring arrangements (they range from relief for those with debts of less than €20,000 to those who have borrowings running to €3 million).

class="MsoNormal">The figures may just be the tip of the iceberg given the surge in the number of people in trouble with their mortgage. Nearly 11% of mortgages are in arrears and when the figures for anyone whose loan has been restructured and are only repaying some money are included, one in five borrowers are behind with their payments.

class="MsoNormal">Being the intermediary between the banks and struggling mortgage borrowers will form a big part of O’ Connor’s job. On top of the official role he will also be asked to further develop changes to the insolvency rules.

class="MsoNormal">Mr Debt has plenty of work in his in-tray.

class="MsoNormal">

style="padding: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;">Ian Guider

style="padding: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">You can follow Ian on Twitter:  style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"> style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; color: #e71802;" href="https://twitter.com/ianguider">@ianguider

style="padding: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;"> style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;">Ian is Newstalk’s Business Editor and presents Business Breakfast every weekday from 6:30-7am only on Newstalk 106-108fm.