Up to 1,250 Irish businesses have been “recommended” for State-backed coronavirus loans, according to a senior official at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, The Irish Times reported. Declan Hughes, head of the department’s indigenous enterprise, SMEs and entrepreneurship division, said that as of last Friday banks operating the Government’s Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme had recommended 1,250 loans worth €64 million. Mr Hughes told the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment that there had been “very significant interest” in the initiative.

Two Irish landlords of the liquidated Monsoon business have won a High Court challenge in which they claimed their leases to the women’s fashion stores remained in full force here despite a UK creditors arrangement, The Irish Times reported. Apperley Investments Ltd, Tailwind Investments Ltd and Martina Investments Ltd were landlords to the former Monsoon store on Dublin’s Grafton Street. RESAM Cork UC and RESAM Properties Ltd were landlords for the Monsoon store and the Accessorize store, both on Patrick Street, Cork.

Business groups have called for added supports for companies forced to close once again under the Government’s measures to try to suppress Covid-19 in Ireland, warning that tens of thousands of jobs are at risk, The Irish Times reported. Chamber leaders around the country have called on the Government to introduce supports for impacted businesses quickly and to use the time “wisely” to put in place the appropriate infrastructure to support local economies to re-open safely.

Irish households and businesses secured the second-highest level of payment breaks from banks at the height of the coronavirus pandemic across a group of 11 western European countries, according to a report from debt ratings agency DBRS Morningstar, The Irish Times reported. Some 13.4 per cent of Irish loans across the State’s three domestic banks were subject to payment freezes at the end of June, second to Portuguese loans at 21.5 per cent, and almost double the 7 per cent average, the report said. German loans came in at the other end of the scale, at 1.6 per cent.

The High Court has appointed provisional liquidators to two related companies that operate 13 Pamela Scott and Richard Alan retail stores across the Republic, The Irish Times reported. The court heard the companies sought to be liquidated after coming under pressure from landlords, changes to the wage subsidy scheme, a sustained reduction in footfall, and further restrictions expected imminently due to the increasing number of Covid-19 infections.

The Government is set to proceed with reforms to the State’s personal insolvency regime to allow full access to court protections for those struggling debtors hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, The Irish Times reported. Currently someone applying for a personal insolvency arrangement can seek a court review if their mortgage lender refuses what they believe to be a reasonable insolvency proposal. However, in order to seek this review their mortgage arrears must date from before January 1st, 2015.

The High Court has made orders formally winding up the operator of a south Dublin care facility, which caters for vulnerable adults, and a nursing home, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Michael Quinn made the order in respect of St Mary’s Centre (Telford), after being informed that no appeal is being brought against his decision not to appoint an examiner to the company. The company had operated both disability care facility for persons who are legally blind and a nursing home on a campus beside St Vincent’s Hospital on Merrion Road in Dublin.

The scale of the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to as much as €11.7 billion of revenue shortfalls across Irish small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which many will not be able to survive, according to a new Central Bank report, The Irish Times reported. The bank estimates that the gap between companies’ sales and running costs will range between €10.3 billion and €11.7 billion, led by firms in the food and accommodation sector, even after companies have been helped by Government wage subsidy schemes and widespread cost-cutting.

Businesses have been granted more time to pay outstanding tax bills to Revenue at a discounted rate of interest, The Irish Times reported. The decision comes as a spokeswoman for the tax office said there had been strong demand for the incentivised repayment programme, with €46 million of outstanding business taxes now covered by it. A measure in the July stimulus package allowed companies to warehouse Covid tax debt, deferring payment until their businesses reopened and then availing of reduced interest rates.

Fashion retailer New Look’s application for examinership in Ireland is “not about saving jobs” but an attempt to rewrite its contracts with landlords, it has been claimed, The Irish Times reported. A lawyer for some of the landlords told the High Court the company was in “more robust health than most”, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and was seeking to make changes that could save it around €5 million per year in rent reductions.