Ardagh Group’s debt restructuring talks to a group of bondholders has broken down amid a standoff over how much Paul Coulson, the packaging giant’s leading shareholder, will continue to own in its improving drink cans business, the Irish Times reported. The heavily-indebted business proposed in March that a group of senior unsecured bondholders write off much of the $2.32 billion (€2.05 billion) they are owed in exchange for taking full ownership of the glass containers part of the business.

The Irish High Court has confirmed the appointment of an examiner to Workman’s Club Ltd, part of the former Press Up hospitality and entertainment group founded by Patrick McKillen jnr and Matthew Ryan, the Irish Times reported. Ms Justice Eileen Roberts said on Monday she was satisfied to appoint Declan McDonald of PwC as examiner to the company. The confirmation of Mr McDonald as examiner follows a petition for court protection brought on behalf of the company by Kelley Smith SC, instructed by Gavin Simons, partner in AMOSS solicitors, earlier this month.

There was a 28% increase in the number of court approved Personal Insolvency Arrangements (PIAs) — the insolvency mechanism that address mortgage-related debt — during 2024, as the number of accounts in mortgage arrears “remains stubbornly high”, a new report by the Insolvency Service of Ireland has found, the Irish Examiner reported. The latest annual report from the ISI said there were 1,189 approved insolvency arrangements during 2024, of which 861 were PIAs — an increase from the 929 recorded in 2023, of which 671 were PIAs.

A finance company which funded loans to entities associated with Patrick McKillen junior is seeking judgment of some €8.7 million against the businessman, the Commercial Court has heard, the Irish Times reported. Cabriz Finance Ltd, of Riverside Road, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, claims that Mr McKillen, with an address for communication at Ely Place, Dublin, provided various guarantees and indemnities for four loans to four companies.

Ireland’s economy surged in the three months through March as U.S. pharmaceutical giants based in the country boosted production to build stockpiles back home ahead of threatened tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland’s strong start to the year, alongside a pickup in Belgium, supported eurozone growth as 2025 got underway, with figures for the currency area to be released Wednesday. Spain, which also released figures Tuesday, recorded a slight slowdown, while continuing to grow at a robust pace. However, high levels of production to build reserves of drugs in the U.S.

Average Irish mortgage drawdowns hit a record of almost €328,000 in the first three months of the year, according to figures from the banking industry, as borrowers took on more debt as home prices continued to soar amid a shortage of properties for sale, the Irish Times reported. This was driven by a 9.6 per cent annual rise in loans on second-hand properties, to €370,790, according to Banking and Payments Federation Ireland’s (BPFI) latest quarterly mortgage drawdowns report, which draws on data going back to 2005.

Grocery prices are now climbing much faster than they were this time last year with fresh data from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel suggesting that inflation in Irish supermarkets currently stands at just over 4.5 per cent, the Irish Times reported. The latest figure compared to a rate of less than 3 per cent in June of last year with the spike in prices leading to a slowdown in sales recorded in recent weeks. Take-home value sales in Ireland increased by 3.4 per cent over the four weeks to March 23rd 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest grocery data.

Ireland’s economy would suffer a significant blow and could even risk recession if U.S. President Trump targeted the country with higher tariffs or changed tax rules, the Central Bank of Ireland said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a quarterly report, the central bank lowered its growth forecasts for this year and next, citing the impact of uncertainty about Trump’s future actions on investment and exports. It now expects gross domestic product to grow by 4% in both 2025 and 2026, having previously forecast an expansion of 4.2% this year and 4.5% next.

Since the beginning of the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, there have existed two different insolvency regimes on the island of Ireland, the Irish News reported. In 2024, there were 852 total insolvencies in the Republic, a 16% increase on 2023. Some 305 companies in Northern Ireland declared insolvency in 2024, an almost 40% increase. Of course, a portion of the explanation will always rest on the sizes of the respective jurisdictions, but Northern Ireland’s much stricter post-Covid insolvency procedures can also help us understand this discrepancy.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the state’s ‘bad bank’, appears to have got the best available price for a Northern Ireland portfolio of loans known as Project Eagle, a seven-year investigation has found, the Irish Independent reported. Nama had previously been criticised by the Comptroller & Auditor General for making a loss of £162m (€195m) from selling assets in Northern Ireland, and for the way it handled the sale. This prompted the Irish government to set up a commission of inquiry in 2017, which reported last October after several extensions.