John Whelan: The number of Irish business failures will rise in this third lockdown

Euler Hermes, the global business insurance and underwriter, indicated that 780 Irish firms will file for insolvency in the year ahead

Unless there are additional support measures forthcoming from the public purse through this year and beyond, the third lockdown may cause irreparable damage to Ireland's wide-ranging small business base.

The resurgence in Covid-19 cases and fresh lockdowns in the last quarter of 2020, hit global trade hard. But that wasn't the end of it. 

The extension and further tightening of the business confinement measures in Ireland and across a number of European countries, after the light-touch lockdown failed to contain the virus, suggests that many private companies will not be able to recover from this third lockdown.