The High Court’s decision to refuse last week to appoint an examiner to the property development group controlled by Liam Carroll may sound the death knell not only for the property group, but it may also signal the beginning of the end for the examinership process.

The aim of giving court protection to troubled companies is to give them time to come up with a rescue plan, but as more and more companies either fail in their application to get this protection, or to attract new financing to ensure their survival during the examinership process, the relevancy of the procedure is increasingly being called into question.