The number of new company start-ups increased 13 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015.

According to figures from business and credit risk analysts Vision-net.ie, the finance sector saw the largest increase in the number of start-ups compared to the first three months of 2015, with 554 new companies set up in the quarter. This was followed by construction, which had 474 new start-ups in the first three months.

Insolvencies dropped by 17 per cent year-on-year to 227 in the first quarter, Vision-net.ie said. Companies in the hospitality sector were found to be at the greatest risk of failure, with 44 per cent classified as “high risk”.

Vision-net.ie also said the number of registered companies trading as normal was 10 per cent higher in the first quarter of 2016 than it was in the same period in 2008, the beginning of the recession.

There are now 196,670 registered companies trading as normal compared to 178,907 in the first quarter of 2008, it said.

Vision-net.ie managing director Christine Cullen said this statistic was encouraging. "Combined with a fall in insolvencies, an increase in start- ups across all regions and evidence of greater access to credit and growth in rural areas, the figure indicates ongoing nationwide recovery, with new businesses spread across a number of diverse sectors."

Over the eight-year period, professional services companies have experienced the largest growth, with an increase of 4,987 to 42,739 companies.

However on a percentage basis, the highest rates of increase in the number of companies trading as normal can be found in health and social services, agriculture and social and personal services, followed by IT.

At 19,135, the number of companies in the construction sector is 19 per cent or 4,487 lower than it was eight years ago, while there are 12,624 manufacturing companies, 5 per cent or 682 fewer than in the first quarter of 2008.

The number of real estate companies, meanwhile, has dropped by 11 per cent to 16,486 over the eight-year period.

The rate at which new real estate, construction and manufacturing companies are being set up also remains lower than it was in the first quarter of 2008.

Some 44 per cent of all new Irish-registered companies are set up in Dublin. “A longer-term focus on developing infrastructure outside of the capital, to ensure greater regional balance, must be a priority for the new government,” Ms Cullen said.

“In the case of construction, with growth in commercial building but paralysis in the residential sector, there is potential for further growth and job creation if desperately needed house building was to restart.”