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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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Planning permission granted to build monstrosity hotels in the middle of nowhere, whilst at the same time refusing local people planning to build a home on their own land… What goes around, comes around!
Cormac it will be grand, just wait till Enda’s 5 point plan kicks in sure dont you know the country has turned the corner…….
Both should have been refused
Why should anyone be denied the basic right to build on their own family land? Provided its within reason and passes all basic requirements. I have first hand experience of county council planners moving the goalposts on planning, when it comes to suiting their agenda or perhaps their bank balance.
After struggling for the last three years I finally closed the doors last month. Rates- which have no bearing current levels of trading, commercial water rates- crazy costs involved here- vat and taxes, alongside trading figures that continued to decrease because of less disposable incomes, finally took their toll. I have been self employed in this industry for twenty years. Now I have to grovel to see if I can get some ” welfare”. “Better times just round the corner”….do me a favour…..that’s not a corner…it’s a vicious circle!
Where is the Recovery we are being told about?…ah yes I forgot the Banks and parasites have recovered. The 99% were not included in this recovery.
Joseph, see above, sure everything is under the control of European Man of the year, what can go wrong?
At risk of collapse – literally, from the crappy building quality during the celtic chernobyl !
We are all out of the bad times good times are here I have been searching but can not find any good times roll on the county council election and we have a chance to make a change
Yeah because hotels in Galway, Dublin, Cork and Killarney are totally struggling like, especially on weekends.
They were greedy in the Celtic Tiger years and some of them still are when big concerts in their area. Also most charge a lot extra for weekend breaks than mid week. The staff dont get any extra so why up the charges?
On St Patricks weekend the cheapest hotel I could find was €495 a night. The tuesday after St Patricks day, the same room was €69.
It’s called supply and demand …
Wow, is it? The hotel I stayed in was 70% full, they wanted €500 a night. If it wasn’t for greed they would be 100% full. How many people was put off from visiting Ireland that weekend because of hotel prices.
Let’s assume your 70% figure is right. In order to achieve the same revenue and be 100% full, they would need to charge €350 a night – and that ignores the extra costs associated with each room. Do you know for a fact they would have filled the hotel at that price? Would it be greedy or not greedy? What if it was €361.24 a night? Where’s the greed threshold?
The average nightly rate for this hotel for the last 6 weeks is €89. You do the maths. 4 friends of mine wanted to come that weekend but didn’t because of the price of hotels. Im wouldn’t say they’re the only ones put off.
So you think they should have filled the place at €89 a room instead of getting 70% occupancy at €500 per room? If there are 100 rooms, they are then down €26100 per night plus the cost of cleaning 30 extra rooms.
What sane business would do that?
In most major cities, hotel rates are posted inside the door of the room. This is to prevent gouging as we see in Dublin around holidays. They should be required.
I set up a new business about 4 months ago helping restaurants and hotels that are in difficulty… Every premises I went to I have saved them anything from 10k to 200k per annum, but also from going under and actually started making them a profit again… The main problem at all of these establishments is the people who own or manage them, they haven’t a clue about costs and overheads nor do they know how to cut costs so we can give a cheaper rate to you the customer…. I am only 25 years of age and I could see the problem in all of these places, it just goes to show people who are there for 40/50 years still don’t have a clue…!!!
Sometimes in business when you’re too close to something its hard to see the wood from the trees. Best of luck with your company but if you saved someone 200k in one year they shouldn’t be running a sweet shop let alone a hotel.
have to agree with you Simon, i was in the catering /hospitality trade for over 25 yrs as a chef ,manger and landlord mainly working in the UK but also for quite some time here in Ireland, the problem i found was that too many people who wanted to run a pub, restaurant, hotel, guesthouse or b&b had very little training or experience in the trade if any at all, this was especially true of pub’s in Ireland. it seemed as if some people got heir hands on some money and decided that they would make great landlords or hoteliers, even though they had no previous experience in the trade. then if a member of staff ,who may of had years of experience in the trade , tries to tell them where they are going wrong, they don’t listen usually coming out with some remark like “‘ its our business and we’ll run it our way”. i know because it has happened to me on a number of occasions. another big problem in Ireland is the quango now known as ‘failte Ireland’ and their insistence on setting prices for rooms and meals when ‘awarding’ ‘stars’. and local authorities lacking proper hygiene inspectors , in the first hotel i worked in here , the local authority ‘health inspector ‘ called out 3 days before we were due to open , he as good as asked me for a “gift as he had always gotten a little something from the previous people ” i reported him but was told it was a ‘misunderstanding’ . i have been into the kitchens of a number of hotels here and to be quite honest they were disgusting, yet these same establishments would be given ‘awards’ for their food ( if customers could see inside the kitchens they would never eat there.) simple regulations such as not storing raw meat above cooked meat, putting opened tins into fridges, over ordering of produce, no proper stock control, bags of spuds or fruit that has gone off still being kept in storage, food stuffs like mayonnaise that are well past their ‘use by’ date. refrigeration records not being properly taken or maintained, simple rules and regulations being either ignored or not adhered too costing the business money
and reputation . i feel all this went hand in glove with the ‘celtic tiger’ years of easy money and light touch regulations.
maintained.
But we have turned the corner ?
Turned the corner yes ….. And straight into a labour Fine Gael led train wreck .
Barry, maybe they mean turning a corner…in a maze!
Turn 3 corners and you’re back where you started. How many corners have we turned now?
You never know whats around the corner or so we are always told ,but the politicians know just ask them especially when they are running for election
Was looking at hotels for this weekend and there nearly 350 euro for 2 nights b&b. Over priced
Try lidl breaks :) lovely hotels at 49pp bnb plus dinner :)
Where did you want to go Alan that was costing €350?
Got a text yesterday….Ocean Sands Hotel, Enniscrone 2 nights B+B for 2 people for €89 total? Now that’s a deal but they have to be struggling to be able to offer that
My arse, they are a greedy sector!
Cowboy builders !!!
Not surprised about restaurants (or hotels for that matter) seeing as about 20 new ones seem to pop up every week in Dublin. Every man and his dog seems to have one and it’s entirely unsustainable.
Are they any of the 5 hotels I tried to book 3 weeks in a advance by the Dublin airport who were almost completely full and only had suites left… One was €499 a night.
It’s funny what some people will go to their graves swearing is government spin and what they will accept mindlessly.
Just got out of a meeting with a cabinet minister. He recommends the George V in Paris. They’ll send the jet to Dublin to pick you up…
Nama is to blame for a lot of this. by keeping open, at a low cost, hotels that should be let close, they are driving good and well run hotels and restaurants out of business that can’t compete with them.
The good ones will survive and the bad will go under. That’s the way it works and always has.
but ,but, but they said we had ‘turned a corner’ ,they said things were ‘on the up’, do you think they lied to us? they wouldn’t do that would they? i mean were supposed to be able to trust in them arn’t we?.
At the Launch of the candidates for The Euro elections Enda Kenny promised ‘prosperity for all’ ?Are they all so out of touch that they do not realise if they keep taking taking taking business will suffer. It is surely time to try another way and put money into people’s pockets.
In Spain the Spanish Government subsidise the hotels and tourist industry while in Ireland our Government charge the tourist Industry 13 per cent vat on sales!
NAMA and the banks have put many hotels into either Receivership, Examinership or Liquidation!
No hope left in Ireland!
In Spain, the Government are subsidising the tourist industry so that it won’t collapse.
Ireland should reduce the VAT rate on tourist products to zero to help the Industry!
The Government needs to be pro-active !
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