Nine Irish firms declared insolvent every day in October - survey

Nine Irish companies were declared insolvent every working day in the month of October, according to figures released today by vision-net.ie.

A total of 172 companies were declared insolvent in October 2011, with business and professional services companies (17%) now ranking alongside construction companies (18%) as the worst sectors affected.

Vision-net.ie also released the results of its monthly company stress tests. Of the companies surveyed in the sample, 41% are viewed as "high risk" in terms of their risk of failure; 20% are classified as medium risk and 39% are low risk.

The stress test analysed 14,741 companies and found that:

- 5,983 are seen as being high risk (41%)

- 2,935 are seen as being medium risk (20%)

- 5,823 are seen as being low risk (39%)

The number of creditors meetings for October 2011, at 97 companies was similar to the number recorded in October 2010 when 99 such meetings were held.

Vision-net.ie managing director Christine Cullen said: "The level of business failures continues to be stubbornly high. There are few real signs yet of recovery in the domestic sector, with professional services firms starting to creep in the wrong direction.