Crash continues to bite as firms going under in 2012 rose by 3%
But outlook brighter for year ahead as number of insolvencies predicted to fall in 2013.
The retail sector accounted for 13pc of all insolvencies during 2012, with several high profile names including Clerys department stores (pictured above) going into receivership. It was sold to an American private equity group Gordon Brothers just hours later.
Nearly 1,700 businesses went under in 2012, as market conditions continued to worsen. New statistics from the Insolvency Journal.ie website show that 1,684 companies failed last year, up 3pc on 2011, and 10pc higher than 2010.
Five years into the crash, the construction sector is still the biggest problem. About a quarter of all businesses that closed were involved in that industry.
Ken Fennell of the accounting firm Kavanaghfennell, which runs the Insolvency Journal, said that 2012 had seen a shift in the type of insolvency companies were facing.
“There was an increase in examinerships and receiverships and a decrease in both creditor voluntary liquidations and court liquidations.
Restructuring
“This would indicate a move towards restructuring of companies instead of company closures,” he said.
The retail sector accounted for 13pc of all insolvencies during 2012, with several high profile names, including Clerys department stores, going into receivership. At 220, however, the number of retail failures was down 3.5pc on the previous year.
Trade group Retail Excellence Ireland has already indicated that retail sales were up in 2012.
There were 171 failures tied to the hospitality sector, down 16pc year on year, but the manufacturing sector endured a grim year, with the number of insolvencies surging 26pc to 130. That meant the sector accounted for 8pc of all failures during the year.
The motor and transport industries both accounted for 2pc of all insolvencies this year. Failures in the motoring sector tumbled by 47pc while transport insolvencies fell 34pc when compared to 2011 totals.
There were high-profile insolvency cases across both sectors, most notable the receivership of Bill Cullen Motor Group and the winding-up of transport firm Target Express.
There were 399 corporate receiverships recorded in 2012, an increase of 40pc on the 284 in 2011 and 77pc more than the number recorded in 2010. Some noteworthy receivership appointments during the year were A-wear, Lyrath Estate in Kilkenny and Greenstar, Kavanaghfennell said.
Examinership Examinership activity during 2012 also increased significantly from 16 cases in both 2010 and 2011 to 27 in 2012, almost a 70pc hike, with the cases of Atlantic Homecare and Cappoquin Chickens in particular, grabbing the headlines.
“This increase in examinership activity looks likely to continue with the recent Government announcement to allow small private companies to apply directly to the Circuit Court to have an examiner appointed.
“This amendment will make it cheaper and easier for businesses to restructure their debts and means that more businesses will survive their current difficulties and we would anticipate a significant increase in those availing of the examinership process during 2013,” Mr Fennell said.
Liquidations fell 6pc to 1,258.
Looking ahead to 2013, Mr Fennell said he expected insolvencies to fall slightly this year for the first time in five years.
“We would also anticipate significant numbers of examinerships during 2013,” he added.
We need more action, not guff or rhetoric, key to employment creation
So our Taoiseach Enda Kenny is putting some renewed stress on his Government’s aim to create more jobs in 2013.
This is surely a very good thing. After all, one in seven Irish workers is now on the dole, and that figure is only kept from ballooning skywards by the shameful toll of emigration.
It is welcome news that the Taoiseach is going to make all his cabinet ministers give a specific account of their job-creation efforts. Nobody would quibble with Mr Kenny’s assertion that employment is not the sole preserve of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Minister Richard Bruton.
We endorse the Taoiseach’s enthusiasm – but only up to a point. Forgive us for striking a sceptical note, but Mr Kenny is good at these rhetorical flourishes which sometimes prove lighter in real content.
Remember his promise of ‘report card’ accountability for all his cabinet members? You’re forgiven if you do not recall as it did not stand up to any kind of scrutiny.
The Taoiseach has promised us an ‘Action Plan for Jobs’ to be published next month with a target of generating 100,000 jobs by 2016.
We look forward to this with interest and trust the real stress will be on the word ‘action’.
Smoking doe not relieve stress…quitting does! Study proves benefits of nicotine are a myth
- Researchers found ex-smokers were less anxious
- One in five say they need cigarettes to relieve stress
- Researchers say smokers deserve to know relaxing benefits of nicotine are a myth
It is yet another reason to keep that New Year’s resolution about giving up smoking.
Contrary to popular perception, smoking does not relieve stress. But quitting does.
British researchers measured anxiety levels in almost 500 smokers – before and after they tried to give up.
One in five said they smoked to help them deal with stress. Nationally, the figure is as high as one in two.
All took part in an NHS smoking cessation programme, which involved being given nicotine patches and attending two-monthly appointments.
Six months after signing up for the course, 68 of the 491 were still abstaining – and they were less anxious than before.
However, those who tried to give up and failed were more stressed than in the beginning, the British Journal of Psychiatry reports.
The researchers, from Oxford University and King’s College London, said: ‘The belief that smoking is stress-relieving is pervasive but almost certainly wrong.
‘The reverse is true: smoking probably causes anxiety and smokers deserve to know this and understand how their own experience may be misleading.’
Researchers believe the confusion has arisen because one of the withdrawal effects of nicotine is edginess.
Smokers in need of a top-up will repeatedly suffer this feeling throughout the day and find it eases when they have a cigarette. But while smoking may take the edge off stress related to lack of nicotine, it probably does nothing to ease the pressures of everyday life.
The researchers are less sure why stress levels rose in those who failed to quit. But it may be that their failure – and thoughts of the damage their habit was doing to their health – made them worry more.
This increase in stress levels was particularly high in those with depression and other psychiatric problems and the researchers said doctors should be aware of this.
Unique cross-border programme to improve local health care facilities
A unique cross-border programme on patient safety has brought together 27 senior managers and clinicians from hospitals and services to focus on best practice and how it can be applied in local health facilities.
Dr Philip Crowley pictured above left, HSE National Director of Quality and Patient Safety, said the programme demonstrates a positive commitment to “developing capacity to improve quality and patient safety at a difficult time for our health services”.
Participants include medical consultants, senior nurses and allied health professionals from the HSE areas of Sligo, Cavan and Drogheda, and from the Western and Southern Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.
The initiative is a collaboration between the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the HSC Safety Forum of the Public Health Agency (PHA) in Northern Ireland and seeks to improve quality of care and outcomes for patients across both jurisdictions.
The objective is to develop a core group of health professionals who can lead within their own organisations on service improvement with a focus on patient safety and quality.
It is intended that participants implement learning from the training at local hospital or health service facility level. It will also lead to the development of locally-based trainers in the area of patient safety and quality improvement.
Funding for the initiative came from the EU’s INTERREG IVA programme, which seeks to address the economic and social problems resulting from the existence of borders, and was secured by the cross-border health services partnership Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT).
Chief Officer of CAWT, Bernie McCrory, said: “Opportunities like this are extremely important because they enable our doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals from both sides of the border to engage in joint training, which ultimately benefits patient and clients.”
Donegal shark travels some 3,000 miles to Senegal off the coast of Africa
The basking shark travelled 3,000 miles
A five metre basking shark that spends its summers in Lough Foyle and near Malin Head has been detected off the western coast of Africa.
The shark has been discovered near Senegal, over 3,000 miles away.
It is the first time it has been confirmed where the animals travel to for the northern hemisphere winter.
The research was carried out by the Irish Basking Shark Project, whose co-ordinator, Emmett Johnston, explained why the shark had travelled so far.
“Up until now there have been lots of different theories put forward about the sharks and one was that they hibernated over the winter because there wasn’t enough food in the waters around the north Atlantic.
“Other people said they went offshore and they have been tracked offshore in the winter.
“But we have been theorising that they head further south to where the food is, like the larger whales from this area.
“The unusual thing about this is the type of food that they eat.
“It is mainly a type of plankton, insects that are in the sea, but that is not found down there in the tropical waters.
“It is a very different kind of habitat, it is akin to finding a polar bear in the desert.
“It is in stark contrast to the type of waters that they are associated with, like the temperate waters you find up here.”
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is effective where antidepressants fail
Scientists have demonstrated that people with depression who have not responded to treatment with antidepressants are three times more likely to get better if they receive cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in addition to antidepressants and usual care.
The findings, published Online First in The Lancet, are good news for the two-thirds of people with depression who do not respond fully to initial treatment with an antidepressant.
“Until now, there was little evidence to help clinicians choose the best next step treatment for those patients whose symptoms do not respond to standard drug treatments,” said Nicola Wiles from the University of Bristol, who led the research.
In the large-scale randomised trial, Wiles and her colleagues recruited 469 adults (aged 18–75 years) who had not responded to at least six weeks of treatment with an antidepressant from 73 general practices across the UK. Participants were randomised to either continue with usual care provided by their GP, which included continuing on antidepressant medication (235 patients), or to receive CBT in addition to usual care (234 patients) and were followed up for 12 months.
After six months, 46 per cent of participants who received CBT in addition to usual care had improved (reporting at least a 50 per cent reduction in depressive symptoms) compared to 22 per cent of those who continued with treatment as usual.
Individuals in the intervention group were also more likely to experience remission and have fewer symptoms of anxiety. Similar beneficial effects were reported at 12 months.
No comments:
Post a Comment