Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process: Discussion

Ms Maureen Marray:

It is not a large number but we are just supporting. The figure I will give is still dynamic and will change. For those who have not engaged, they risk losing the 0% rate and access to the flexible payments arrangement. The latest statistic is that 11,000 customers have not yet put a payment plan in place. As we would have advised in all of our communications to date, that debt, which covers 11,000 customers and €200 million - coming down to less than €200 million - will lose that 0%. They will be subject to the standard collection procedure. Today's committee meeting is timely as today we wrote to those customers using our standard collection process and have issued a seven-day demand notice. That is a standard notification we send to any customer with debt. Those customers have seven days and one final opportunity to engage and put a payment plan in place. If they do not, after seven days, they lose the 0%. We will then proceed to the next stage of our collection process, which is final demand, possible enforcement and that debt will be subject to the 8% and 10% rates, which are standard for standard debt.