Insolvency rate down by a fifth.

The company insolvency rate in Ireland in 2013 has dropped by almost one-fifth when compared to the same period last year.

Details provided by Solocheck show that 812 companies were declared insolvent between 1st January and 24th June 2013, down 17% on the same period in 2012 when 976 were recorded.

69% of insolvent companies this year have been liquidated with a further 30% entering receivership and the remainder going in to examinership.

Dublin was the worst affected county for insolvencies accounting for 41% in total. Cork and Kildare were second and third worst hit accounting for adding a further 12% and 5% respectively.

The professional services sector was hardest hit as it made up 18% of insolvencies followed by construction (17%) and wholesale & retail (14%).

There were 7,583 company start-ups recorded in the first half of 2013, up 9% on the same period in 2012 and in total the first six months of this year saw 21,134 company and business start-ups - an average of 120 per day.

The first five months of 2013 saw creditors awarded €189m in bad debt judgments from the courts. €81m (43%) of that total was awarded to the banks with the revenue commissioner receiving a further €41m.