Judgments down 30pc to €277.6m in past year

Published by the Irish Independent 31/12/2016.
Data compiled by Stubbs Gazette revealed there were 3,031 debt judgments in the past year, down 32pc on 2015’s figure of 4,479

The highest debt judgment registered in the past 12 months was against property developer Tommy Finnerty.

Danske Bank obtained a €9.2m judgment against Mr Finnerty, of Oughterard, Co Galway, last January.

The largest judgment against a company was for €6.3m against Connotes Ltd, a company run by Monaghan hotelier Sean McElvaney.

The debt related to loans for development work at the former Setanta House Hotel in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Data compiled by Stubbs Gazette revealed there were 3,031 debt judgments in the past year, down 32pc on 2015's figure of 4,479.

The overall value of judgments dropped from €567.8m in 2015 to €277.6m in 2016.

The decline is thought to be due to the impact of new insolvency legislation and banks cleaning up their loan books.

There were 2,261 judgments against individuals, worth a combined €257.8m, in 2016. This was down from 3,610 judgments for a total of €550.5m the previous year.

The number of judgments registered against companies dropped from 869 in 2015 to 770 in 2016.

But the sums involved jumped from €13.9m to €19.8m in the same period. However, just 4.2pc of the sums sought in judgments were recovered each year.

The Revenue Commissioners accounted for around 45pc of all registered judgments in the past two years.

It sought to recover €64.5m via judgments in 2015 and €51.9m in the past 12 months.

The banks accounted for just 11.2pc and 8.1pc of all judgments in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

However, the sums involved were considerably larger than other institutions, with €397.8m sought in 2015 and €158.6m in 2016.

Credit unions accounted for 9.7pc and 8.3pc of judgments respectively in 2015 and 2016, with the sums sought for recovery totalling €6.7m and €4.6m in each year.

Other entities, including vulture funds, accounted for 34pc of judgments in 2015 and 38.9pc in the past 12 months. The overall sums sought amounted to €98.8m in 2015 and €62.4m the following year.