Short answer
Irish corporate distress law offers rescue and realisation routes with different triggers. Examinership is a court-supervised process for a company that is or is likely to be unable to pay its debts but has a reasonable prospect of survival. Filing the petition creates broad court protection, normally for an initial 70 days, while an examiner formulates a compromise. SCARP is a less court-intensive rescue process for eligible small and micro companies, led by a process adviser; unlike examinership, it does not create an automatic stay.
A receiver is usually appointed under security to realise charged assets for the secured creditor. Receivership does not necessarily end the company or create a collective distribution of all assets. Liquidation does: a liquidator gathers assets, challenges invalid transactions, applies the statutory priority rules and dissolves the company. It may be a solvent members' voluntary winding up, an insolvent creditors' voluntary winding up or a court winding up.
Security must be valid and, for a company charge, ordinarily registered with the CRO within the statutory 21-day system. Fixed security generally follows its collateral; preferential debts can outrank floating charges; unsecured creditors share pari passu in the remaining estate. Unfair preferences, late floating charges and post-commencement dispositions may be reversed or invalid. Directors can face recovery claims, restriction, disqualification and personal liability depending on their conduct.
Examinership combines a stay with court confirmation
Part 10 of the Companies Act 2014 permits a petition where the company is or is likely to be unable to pay its debts and no winding-up resolution or order has already foreclosed the route. The court must be satisfied that the company and all or part of its undertaking has a reasonable prospect of survival. Directors, the company, qualifying creditors or members may petition, with an independent expert's report addressing viability and likely outcomes.
Protection begins on presentation of the petition. Section 520 provides:
“no proceedings for the winding up of the company may be commenced or resolution for winding up passed”
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During protection, a receiver cannot be appointed, existing receivers are restricted, execution and security enforcement are stayed, and repossession generally needs the examiner's consent. The initial period is 70 days, subject to statutory extension. Amendments implementing the Preventive Restructuring Directive also protect specified executory contracts from termination or modification solely because of the petition, appointment or insolvency circumstance.
The examiner investigates, seeks investment and proposes a scheme dividing members and creditors into proper classes. A scheme can impair secured, preferential and unsecured claims and bind dissenters if the statutory voting gateway is met and the court confirms it. The court examines fair and equitable treatment, unfair prejudice, good faith, viability and the counterfactual outcome. Confirmation—not the petition alone—rewrites claims. Guarantees and third-party liabilities require separate attention under the notice rules.
SCARP is an administrative rescue with targeted court control
Part 10A, inserted by the Companies (Rescue Process for Small and Micro Companies) Act 2021, is available to an eligible small or micro company that is or is likely to be unable to pay its debts and has a reasonable prospect of survival. It cannot already be in liquidation; recent examinership/SCARP and an established receivership can disqualify it. Directors initiate the process and appoint a qualified process adviser after the statutory eligibility and viability assessment.
The adviser collects claims and prepares a plan that classifies creditors and members, compares likely liquidation or receivership outcomes, treats members of a class equally unless they consent otherwise, and sets an implementation timetable. Meetings must be convened within the compressed statutory schedule. Acceptance requires 60% in number representing a majority in value of claims represented at the meeting, and at least one impaired creditor class must approve.
After approval, affected creditors and members have 21 days to object. Without an objection, a compliant plan becomes binding after filing; an objection activates court review. Court involvement is therefore targeted, but remains available for unfair prejudice, procedural irregularity and specified impropriety.
SCARP has no automatic examinership-style moratorium. The process adviser, company or directors may seek an order staying proceedings, restraining a receiver appointment or protecting property. Excludable creditors—commonly State creditors—receive a prescribed opt-out process. Speed does not reduce directors' disclosure, cooperation and accuracy duties, and the process adviser reports suspected offences to the DPP and CEA.
Receivership follows the security, not the whole estate
A security document may empower a lender to appoint a receiver after an event of default. The receiver takes control of the charged property, runs or sells it where authorised and applies proceeds according to the security and law. The receiver is commonly expressed to be the company's agent, but owes statutory and equitable duties and must obtain the best price reasonably obtainable on a sale. Appointment does not itself dissolve the company or place all creditors into one collective process.
The security's type matters. A fixed charge attaches to identified assets and restricts the company's freedom to deal with them; a floating charge hovers over a changing asset class until crystallisation. Courts look at substance and actual control, not the label. Receivership can coexist with liquidation, but the liquidator controls uncharged assets and statutory estate claims, while preferential claims may intervene against floating-charge realisations.
Examinership timing can block appointment or action by a receiver. SCARP eligibility is lost if a receiver has been in place for three working days, although prompt court protection may be sought. These deadlines make early choice of procedure consequential.
Company charges require registration and careful priority analysis
Section 409 makes a company-created charge void against a liquidator and creditors unless registered through the one-stage or two-stage procedure. Under the one-stage route, Form C1 particulars must reach the CRO no later than 21 days after creation. Under the two-stage route, the notice of intention fixes the prospective priority date and the confirmation of creation must arrive within 21 days of that notice. There is no administrative extension; late relief requires the statutory court route and can affect intervening rights.
Registration does not prove the deed valid, the debt due or the charge fixed rather than floating. CRO priority generally follows receipt of the particulars, subject to property law, priority arrangements and other registries. A lender should perfect every asset-specific step as well as the Companies Act filing.
Liquidation collects assets and applies a waterfall
A solvent company may use members' voluntary winding up through the Summary Approval Procedure and special resolution. If the company cannot pay its debts, creditors' voluntary liquidation or court winding up is appropriate. In liquidation, directors' powers largely cease, the liquidator takes custody of company property, adjudicates proofs, realises assets, pursues recoveries and ultimately seeks dissolution.
The practical waterfall is asset-specific. Costs of realising fixed-charge collateral are paid from it, then the fixed-charge creditor receives the secured proceeds. Liquidation costs and expenses receive statutory treatment. Section 621 preferential debts—including defined tax, employee, holiday and pension amounts—rank ahead of ordinary unsecured claims and, where free assets are insufficient, ahead of floating-charge holders. Floating-charge creditors then take their net collateral; unsecured creditors share the residue pari passu; subordinated claims and members follow according to their rights.
This summary does not determine every asset. Trust property, valid retention-of-title goods, set-off, liens, guarantees, pension regimes and sector-specific priorities may remove value from or reorder the estate. A secured creditor may value, surrender or realise security under the applicable proof rules.
Avoidance rules protect the collective estate
A registered charge can still fail under insolvency law. Section 597 generally invalidates a floating charge created within 12 months before winding up unless the company was solvent immediately afterwards, while protecting contemporaneous or later new value and interest. The lookback is two years for a connected-person charge. Sections 598 and 598A address connected debt repayments and qualifying rescue finance.
Section 604 invalidates an act by an insolvent company done with a view to preferring a creditor where winding up begins within six months, or a longer period the court considers just and equitable. A connected-person transaction within two years, or a permitted longer period, carries a rebuttable preference presumption. The intent element and good-faith purchaser protection matter; insolvency and unequal effect alone do not automatically establish preference.
After winding up commences, an unsanctioned property disposition, share transfer or membership alteration is generally void unless the court orders otherwise. Courts can also restore improperly transferred assets, impose liability for inadequate accounting records, and declare participants personally responsible for reckless or fraudulent trading.
Restriction is a conduct test after insolvent failure
Directors of an insolvent company at winding up or in the preceding 12 months face a five-year restriction unless they satisfy the court or CEA that they acted honestly and responsibly, cooperated with the liquidator and should not otherwise be restricted on just-and-equitable grounds. The Act states:
“The court shall make a declaration … unless it is satisfied”
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A restricted person may act only through a company meeting paid-up cash capital conditions—generally €100,000, or €500,000 for specified public companies. Disqualification is more severe and prohibits acting for its duration. Restriction is not automatic personal liability for all debts, but breach of the restriction and separate reckless-trading, record-keeping or fraud findings can produce criminal and civil consequences.
Conclusion
Irish insolvency outcomes turn on timing, viability, security and conduct. Examinership supplies an automatic court shield; SCARP supplies a faster small-company plan with court protection only when invoked; receivership realises secured collateral; and liquidation collectivises the remaining estate. Registration preserves security, but priority and avoidance rules still test it. Directors and creditors should map assets, filings, lookbacks and procedural deadlines before choosing or enforcing a route.
Sources
This article provides general legal information, not advice for a specific matter. Laws, facts and procedural deadlines may change the result. Follow the linked primary sources and obtain local advice before acting.