Bankruptcy rise sparks fears of homes being lost

There were 448 personal bankruptcies last year according to the state’s insolvency service, amid fears many of those cases involved the repossession of family homes.

The number of bankruptcies last year was eight times that in 2013, with the Insolvency Service of Ireland claiming the surge in the last quarter of 2014 of people seeking personal insolvency arrangements is likely to continue.

The ISI published the figures, which also showed more people applying for insolvency in the last quarter of 2014, than in the previous nine months combined.