Issue 129 (Week ending 06/06/2012)

During last month we saw over 300 judgments awarded against Irish companies and consumers by the courts for unpaid debts. 200 of these judgments were against consumers and totalled €26.6m - the second highest value of judgments awarded in 2012.

Almost €10m of this was awarded to the banking sector in 29 separate rulings. The Collector General received the 74 judgment awards, worth €3.4m, against consumers.

A further €7.3m was awarded against Irish companies - the highest value for commercial judgments awarded in 2012 - in 104 separate rulings.

Of the commercial judgments awarded, the Office of the Collector General was again the main beneficiary with 23 rulings in its favour totalling almost €1m.

The high level of judgments awarded further illustrates that debtors are struggling to repay debts and creditors are struggling to be paid.

Added to this, May saw approximately 5 company insolvencies a day with 150 business failures recorded between the 1st and 28th of the month.

109 of these companies were liquidated while another 36 had a receiver appointed. The remaining companies each had an Examiner appointed to them. The average age of each of these companies was just under 13 years old.

Despite roughly 115 Company and Businesses being formed each day last month, the figure for start-ups that we saw (3,240) was down 9% on the same period in 2011.