ABSTRACT
Company administration orders were introduced by the Insolvency Act 1986 on the recommendation of the Cork Committee, which saw them as a way of making the advantages of the receivership mechanism available in those circumstances in which receivers were not or could not be appointed. Essentially, the idea behind the administration order is to give a company facing insolvency a breathing space from the pressures of creditors to see if a means can be found of effecting a rescue. The Cork Committee recommended such a moratorium in the case of both administration and administrative receiverships, but the then government1 only accepted the proposal in relation to administration: ‘The Government believes that only a court-appointed official, the administrator, whose duty will be to act in the interests of all creditors and shareholders, should enjoy such temporary protection.’
