FIGURES FROM LAST month show 66 per cent of hotels and restaurants are at risk of collapse and other industries are also in trouble.

The figures from credit-risk analysts Vision-net.ie reveal that last month 61 per cent of construction and 53 per cent of wholesale and retail businesses were also facing collapse.

The wholesale and retail sector is also currently the most insolvent, followed by professional services and real estate. The construction sector also showed the most improvement in this regard in April, with a 41.4 per cent reduction in insolvency on the same month last year.

Over half of insolvencies were recorded in Dublin, followed by 5.5 per cent in Meath and Kildare.

In March alone, some €15.7 million was awarded to creditors for non-payment of debts and a large number of these cases involved consumers failing to pay for goods or services.

Of the total, 254 of these, worth €12.8 mllion, were awarded against consumers in March, with an average of €50,307 per judgement. While the figure appears high, it is still a 17 per cent drop on the number of consumer judgements in the same month last year.

Despite the shaky business environment at the moment, there was a 47 per cent increase in the number of tech start-ups last month compared to April last year.

Figures show there were 122 of these start-ups last month – a considerable rise on the 83 last year. The IT and tech sector was the fourth most popular industry for new company start-ups.

ICT currently contributes €72 billion to the national economy but only three per cent of that is generated by Irish companies. Christine Cullen, Managing Director of Vision-net said it was “heartening” to see Irish tech entrepreneurs committed to investing their skills and ideas here.

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