Government 'life support' so far helping to keep businesses afloat             

The number of business failures has been kept artificially low because of the huge amounts of support to business and household incomes injected by the Government into the economy. 

The number of Irish business failures will rise as huge Government aid comes to an end and the full effects of the Covid-19 economic crisis and Brexit bite hard, warns accountancy firm Baker Tilly. File picture.

A second major business advisory group has warned the number of Irish business failures will inevitably rise as the "life support" of huge Government aid comes to an end and the full effects of the Covid-19 economic crisis and Brexit bite hard.  

Accountancy firm Baker Tilly said its survey of examinerships has so far shown no major pickup in the number of companies going into examinership during the first 11 months of the crisis but that matters would likely worsen in time.