We enter the second quarter of 2013 on the back of some good news as Irish company insolvencies dropped by 20% when compared to the same period in 2012.

Our figures for the first three months of this year indicate that 395 Irish companies were declared insolvent between 1st Jan and 25th Mar 2013 - this compares to 493 insolvencies during the same period in 2012.

68% of the insolvencies recorded this year were Liquidations (268) with a further 119 Receiverships and 8 Examinerships. The figure for receiverships dropped sharply when compared to 2012's figure - 119 v 191.

39% of liquidations affected companies based in Dublin - this figure is down 5% on the same period in 2012. Cork and Kildare accounted for 16% and 7% of insolvencies respectively.

Between them, these top three counties accounted for 62% of company insolvencies.

There was a 2% drop in Start-Ups recorded in Q1 this year - 10,130 v 10,348 however, company start-up figures were up 11% on the Q1-2012 figure (3,667 v 3,311).

Business names registrations dropped by 8% from 7,037 last year to 6,463 this quarter. On average we saw 120 Irish start-ups recorded daily this quarter.