1,600 companies facing insolvency this year - report

As many as 1,600 companies could face insolvency by the end of this year, according to new figures from InsolvencyJournal.ie.

The study shows that almost five companies per day went bust from January to June 2011.

A total 819 companies was made insolvent in the first six months of this year, an increase of 3% on the same time last year.

The construction sector is still being badly hit, along with the retail and hospitality sectors.

David Van Dessel, who was involved in compiling the InsolvencyJournal.ie data, said they were predicting the first-half figures would be duplicated in the rest of the year and that the 1,600 predicted corporate insolvencies were similar to the figure last year.