Insolvencies rise by over 40%, PwC report finds

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Author: LAURA SLATTERY
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Corporate insolvencies rose 41 per cent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year and have more than doubled compared with the first three months of 2022, according to new figures from PwC Ireland

Some 223 businesses became insolvent in January-March this year, putting this number on track to come in close to 1,000 for 2024 as a whole, which would exceed the 850 recorded in pre-pandemic 2019, PwC said.

The firm’s insolvency barometer found that small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) liquidations continue to be the main driver of the increase, accounting for 85 per cent of all business failures in the first quarter.

PwC said the hospitality sector was “feeling the pressure”, followed by retail, with these two sectors accounting for 89 – or 40 per cent – of all insolvencies in the first quarter, up from 68 in the same period last year.

This trend is a continuation of a phenomenon seen in 2022 and 2023, when hospitality consistently had one of the highest failure rates quarter-on-quarter.

The hospitality and retail sectors also have the most warehoused debt with Revenue, it noted. Some €1.7...