More companies opened than shut down this year

More Irish companies opened for business than shut up shop this year, with 8% of the start-ups in the IT sector.

Some 13,104 companies got off the ground in 2012, compared to just 12,708 which closed this year.

Year-end figures from credit risk analyst Vision-net today reveal that between January 1 and December 16, 1,844 Irish companies were declared insolvent.

It was an average of five firms per day, which is down 5% compared with the same period last year.

Almost half of the insolvencies - 44% - were in Dublin, while the next highest number was 7.8% in Cork.