Since the recovery from the last recession Ireland has seen the number and value of bad debt judgments decrease steadily over the last 10 years.

However, the same cannot be said for 2021 which saw a rise in bad debt judgments from E43m in 2020 to E67m in 2021, a substantial increase of E24m. The value of judgments registered in 2021 increased by 56% compared to 2020. Whereas, the number of judgments remained similar with a small 0.6% increase in comparison to 2020 (1,329 vs 1,321).

Ireland saw its combined commercial and consumer bad debt judgment value drop 76% in 2020 even with unemployment and economic uncertainty at an all-time high. The suspension of activities during the lockdowns coupled with Government support and moratoriums, are all likely to have significantly contributed to the significant decrease in bad debt, personal insolvency and bankruptcy in Ireland in 2020.

Consumer Judgments

2021 brought an increase in bad debt judgments, from one of its lowest points in 2020. Consumer judgments recorded a significant increase in the value of bad debt, reporting a value of E56m, an increase of 34% compared to E37m in 2020. However, the number of bad debts decreased slightly at 865, in comparison to 2020 which recorded 876. The top plaintiff for consumer judgements is Collector General (Limerick) with E1.1m.

Commercial Judgments:

Moreover, commercial judgements followed a similar pattern. Over the last four years the bad debt judgment value has adjusted year after year. In 2021 E11m bad debt judgement value was recorded, compared to a substantial drop to 6m in 2020. The number of bad debts in 2021 rose slightly to 464, compared to 445 in 2020, a small increase of 4%. Collector General (Limerick) is also the top plaintiff for commercial judgements with E2.5m.

Average Value of Bad Debt Judgments:

The average value of bad debt judgments against individuals is E64.7k. The average value of bad debt judgements against companies' is E23.7k. Combined, this is a total of E50.4k

CRIFVision-net allows you to stay up to date of all bad debt judgements in Ireland! Whenever you add a company to your alerts list, you will be notified of any changes, including if and when a bad debt judgement is filed.

To check the latest Commercial Judgments click here or for Consumer Judgements click here.

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