{"id":268171,"date":"2026-01-05T10:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268171\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:04:10","slug":"irish-insolvencies-to-rise-if-unemployment-continues-upward-trend-says-pwc-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/268171\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish insolvencies to rise if unemployment continues upward trend, says PwC \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish corporate insolvencies <\/a>fell slightly last year from a six-year high in 2024 <\/a>but the number of company collapses could accelerate if unemployment continues to rise, according to PwC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were 848 companies which entered insolvency in 2025, slightly down on the 868 seen the previous year, which was the highest in six years. The firm said the insolvency rate has been stable over the past three years, notwithstanding quarterly fluctuations, crediting it to the strength of the Irish economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is as a result of Ireland\u2019s recent robust economic performance and demonstrates the resilience of Irish businesses to navigate the many current macroeconomic challenges,\u201d PwC said.<\/p>\n

PwC\u2019s Insolvency Barometer for 2025 found that the rate of insolvencies stood at 27 per 10,000 companies, or some 848 insolvencies in the year. The Big Four accountancy firm noted this was \u201cfar below\u201d the 21-year average of 49 insolvencies for each 10,000 businesses. This rate applied to 2025 would see as many as 1,500 insolvencies.<\/p>\n

The previous peak insolvency rate, recorded in 2012, stood at 109 per 10,000 businesses and would equate to more than 3,400 insolvencies in the year. <\/p>\n

The firm noted, however, that an increasing unemployment rate historically points to increasing levels of insolvencies, a 1 per cent increase in the unemployment would be expected to see an additional 245 insolvencies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Another huge corporate tax take to AI\u2019s next phase: What\u2019s in store for 2026?<\/p>\n

PwC said that should the hike in unemployment seen during the year \u2013 from 4 per cent at the start of 2025 to 4.9 per cent in November \u2013 persist in the coming year, the firm would expect to see a corresponding increase in insolvency in the coming years. <\/p>\n

The report also found that the number of insolvencies for companies in the retail sector fell by a quarter in the year but still tops all sectors for insolvencies. There were 151 insolvency cases in 2025, down from 201 the previous year, and the rate of insolvencies remains positive for the sector. <\/p>\n

Despite concerns among the hospitality sector of the impact of high costs, the number of insolvencies in the industry was 8 per cent lower in 2025, however that glosses over a considerably higher insolvency rate of 68 per 10,000 hospitality businesses, well above the 27 per 10,000 rate for all sectors.<\/p>\n

The Revenue Commissioners were behind three out of every five (about 60 per cent) of liquidation petitions to the courts in the year, the report found, noting it reflects Revenue\u2019s \u201cincreased recovery efforts following the end of the debt warehousing scheme and a growing reliance on court enforcement\u201d. The number of liquidations rose by 80 per cent in the year, from 63 in 2024 to 113 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Ken Tyrrell, business recovery partner at PwC Ireland, said that against the recent backdrop of \u201congoing high costs\u201d, the retail and hospitality sectors \u201ccontinue to show reduced levels of insolvencies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite geopolitical instability, inflation, interest rate variability and tariff changes in recent years, the Irish economy has continued to perform well, and is reflected in the current low and stable levels of corporate insolvencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, our analysis also shows that if Irish unemployment were to continue to increase, we will also likely see increasing insolvencies in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also highlighted the impact of global economic trends, which are expected to continue to have an impact on the insolvency levels.<\/p>\n

The report also noted that the small company administration rescue process (Scarp) has seen continued, declining usage, with just 23 rescue processes commenced in the year. This reflected a decline from 30 and 33 in the two previous years, with just 108 processes initiated in the lifetime of the act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish corporate insolvencies fell slightly last year from a six-year high in 2024 but the number of company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,10476,19,17,2356,137173],"class_list":{"0":"post-268171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-high-court","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-pwc","15":"tag-scarp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115841929345509996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}