More than 700 Cork businesses shut up shop for the final time in 2025

More than 700 Cork businesses closed last year, according to the Department of Enterprise, which said data on how many new businesses began trading is not available.

Data on business closures was provided to the Dáil by enterprise minister Peter Burke in response to a parliamentary question from Kildare Sinn Féin TD Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh.

The data only covers companies registered with the Companies Registration Office (CRO), and does not include businesses operating as sole traders or unincorporated entities.

In Cork last year, a total of 710 businesses ceased trading, 263 of which were due to liquidation, while five were as a result of a court order.

Voluntary strike-off

In the case of the 442 remaining businesses that ceased trading last year, the closure was a voluntary strike-off.

This is available where a company either ceases to trade, or has never traded, has no assets over €150, and no outstanding creditors.

Nationally, 12,715 businesses ceased trading last year, with Cork having the most outside of Dublin. Cork saw almost double the amount of closures as the next-highest county on the list, Meath, where 307 businesses ceased trading.

This was followed by 222 in Galway, 218 in Limerick, and 203 in Kildare. In 17 out of 26 counties, there were fewer than 100 closures.

The Echo asked the CRO for data showing the number of closures in Cork in 2023 and 2024, as well as data showing the number of businesses that started trading during this time.

Data not available

The CRO directed the query to the Department of Enterprise, which said: “The requested data is not available.” National data provided in response to a previous parliamentary question showed an upward trend in closures nationally, from 8,616 in 2023 to 11,170 in 2024, an increase of nearly 48% from 2023 to 2025.

However, Mr Burke said that there had been improvements in 2026 compared to 2025 in terms of business closures as well as openings.

He said that, nationally, the overall trend in firms ceasing to trade decreased in the first three months of 2026 compared to the first three months of 2025, going from 3,111 to 1,725.

At the same time, the trend in new firms becoming incorporated increased, with 6,491 new firms incorporated in Q1 2025 compared to 7,843 in Q1 2026.