There were a total of 10,741 new business and company start-ups in the first quarter of this year, a rise of 6pc on the same period last year, according to Vision-net today.
This equates to an average of 127 new start-ups each day.
Professional services; wholesale and retail; social and personal services; IT; and construction companies accounted for 60.1pc of the almost 4,000 new companies formed so far this quarter. 3,989 company start-ups have already been recorded – this is the third highest figure for the period in the last 10 years.
There was also a 23pc drop in the number of insolvencies this quarter when compared to the same period last year.
While the construction sector had the most insolvencies over the period at 18pc, the total number of them dropped by 25pc. Encouragingly also the number of construction start-ups increased by 29pc this quarter over Q1, 2013.
Professional services and wholesale and retail businesses were the second and third most insolvent sectors in the country.
Dublin was home to 44pc of the quarter’s insolvencies, followed by Cork (8.6pc) and Wexford (6.6pc); while Leitrim is the only county not to have experienced a single insolvency in 2014 thus far. Receiverships in Q1, 2014 fell by 10pc over the same period last year, while creditors meetings have dropped by 30pc.
Across 979 corporate and consumer judgments this quarter, €64.1m was awarded to creditors for non-payment of debts this quarter.
Of these 719 judgments worth €51.1m were awarded against consumers this quarter, an average of €71,024 per judgment.
The hospitality sector continues to be the most “at risk”, with 66pc of businesses at “high risk” of closure, followed by the construction sector at 61pc.
Commenting on the Q1, 2014 statistics, Christine Cullen, Managing Director of Vision-net, said: “The culmination of the last three months once again shows that the Irish economy appears to be taking a positive turn into recovery. Insolvencies, receiverships and creditors meetings have all fallen.”
“The large number of new business start-ups, combined with the highest number of company incorporations in the first quarter since the crash, indicates that businesses are operating in a less hostile environment, where greater access to credit is improving,” said Ms Cullen.
