We Brits like the Irish and they love everyone. The world adores them and hates us. We don't understand why and the Irish put a comforting and slightly inappropriate arm around our shoulders and we feel better. And so it always was.
But how far are we behind them? The Irish Times (in case you forgot where you are reading the news and had to glance up at the name of the newspaper to remind yourself of your location) reports today (Monday 14 September) that personal insolvency applications reached a record high in July, according to figures from business and credit risk analyst CRIF Vision-net. The Insolvency Service of Ireland received 239 applications for personal insolvency arrangements, debt relief notices and debt settlement arrangements. This is a 125 per cent increase on the 106 applications made in July last year.
Separately, there were 235 protective certificates issued by the courts. These certificates offer the debtor and their assets protection from legal proceedings by creditors while they are in the process of applying for a debt settlement arrangement or personal insolvency arrangement. This number was up from 52 protective certificates in July 2019 and may point to further personal insolvencies to come.
This is the warning from the west. The numbers are coming. We already knew it and now we know it.
And please note how professional we are in the NTI newsroom. We avoided all of those rather childish comedic references to Ireland and just gave it to you as it is. No jokes. No slurs. No cheap japes at the expense of the Irish. Although we did check the numbers a couple of time before publishing ...
To be sure, to be sure.
