Friday, May 11 14:20:08

Incoming President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Tom Murray, said today that any further delays in publishing the Personal Insolvency Bill will harm business development and job creation.

His comments were made to senior financial professionals at the ACCA's Annual General Meeting, which was held in Dublin today.

In his address, encouraging the Government to publish the legislation no later than the revised June deadline, Tom Murray stated that he recognised the Government's need to get the Bill right, and accepted that there are a significant number of issues that need to be considered in the drafting of what could be the single most important piece of legislation that this Government enacts.

"It is no secret that a significant number of people are waiting to see the final Bill in order to understand what options they may possibly have. Experienced business people are in limbo due to personal debt, which in many cases arises from personal guarantees given to support businesses. As it stands the options available are bankruptcy under the current archaic system in Ireland or the availing of 'bankruptcy tourism' in the UK. In this context, without the timely introduction of the Personal Insolvency Bill, many experienced business people in Ireland remain paralysed by the uncertainty, and as a result are not in a position to contribute to the overall recovery of the economy. Unfortunately, this is having a negative knock-on effect on the SME market and its capacity to create sustainable employment," he said.

Calling on the Government to prioritise the matter and ensure that the deadline date does not slip any further, he said that there is a real danger that Ireland could lose many talented and experienced people to the UK and beyond, which in turn will only continue to slow down the process of job creation and recovery.

A Chartered Certified Accountant, Tom Murray is a leading corporate recovery specialist. A partner with Friel Stafford, he also specialises in Forensic Accounting and is a Certified Mediator.

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ACCA want no delay in insolvency Bill