2,308 commercial and consumer judgments were awarded by the Irish courts in the first half of 2015 - these had a value of just over E220m.

1,692 (73%) of these judgment were awarded against consumers - an increase of 6% on the same period in 2014. These judgments had a combined value of E202.8m - this is an increase of approximately E59m on the first half of last year when awards against consumers totalled E143.8m.

52% of judgments against consumers were awarded to the Revenue Commissioner and these had a value of E31.7m. The banking sector received the highest combined value of awards - these amounted to E148.8m.

616 judgments were awarded against companies, which is down slightly on 2014's figure of 629. Commercial judgments, in the first half of 2015, had a combined value of E17.2m - down 25% on the same period in 2014.

256 commercial judgments were awarded to Local Authorities and had a value of almost E2.4m. The Revenue Commissioners received the highest combined value of judgment awards - these totalled just over E3.9m.