Published by Damien Green, McCambridge Duffy Ireland, Manager
From the ISI’s own figures, the applicant profile across every DRN, DSA and PIA between 2020 and the end of 2025:
- 3% aged 18–34
- 18% aged 35–44
- 35% aged 45–54
- 29% aged 55–64
- 15% aged 65 or over
Almost four in five applicants are over 45. Nearly one in six is over 65.
The Personal Insolvency Act was drafted in the aftermath of a crash, with a cohort in mind who had decades of earning life ahead of them. Those people are now in their fifties and sixties, and the framework is being asked to do something it was not designed for.
The ISI put it plainly in its 2025 Annual Report: age-related considerations “remain a significant feature of many applications, with cases turning on whether proposals were workable in light of the debtors’ age profile.” In several cases, it noted, the central question was whether a term extension running beyond projected life expectancy can satisfy the statutory tests.
The courts have so far answered that question consistently. In Re Fennell, Re Maloney and Re Kenna, arrangements whose principal obligations fell due at or after the end of the debtor’s life were refused, because the debtor could not be shown reasonably likely to comply, and because the arrangement did not resolve the indebtedness.
Consider the Kenna figures. The property was valued at €550,000. The mortgage was €254,629. The security coverage was better than two to one, and the creditor would have been repaid in full from the estate. The arrangement still could not be approved, because it did not accommodate a structure whose final act happens after the borrower has died.
That is a legislative gap, not a judicial one. And it is going to widen, because the cohort is ageing while the Act stays still.
There are workable answers. The Oireachtas could provide expressly for lifetime or estate-settled restructures where equity coverage is demonstrable and the arrangement is sustainable during the debtor’s lifetime. It could clarify what “resolve his or her indebtedness” is to mean for a borrower in their sixties, because on the current reading it can mean very little short of full repayment within a working life that has already ended. None of that requires abandoning creditor protection. Kenna’s lender was never going to lose money.
In the meantime, the practical consequence for anyone advising a borrower over 55 in mortgage arrears: the conventional term-extension PIA is narrowing fast, and the alternatives need to be on the table at the first meeting rather than two years in, after a refusal.
If you’re advising a client in this position, our team is available to talk through what fits: 01 539 5790 or adviceteam@mccambridgeduffy.ie.
Every financial problem has a financial solution
Sources: Insolvency Service of Ireland, Statistics Report Quarter 4 2025 (Applicant Profile, 2020 to 2025 Q4) and Annual Report 2025. Case law: Re Fennell [2021] IEHC 297; Re Maloney (High Court, September 2025); Re Kenna [2026] IECC 1.
