BDO Simpson Xavier can't complain about the amount of notice one of its partners has given them. Paddy McSwiney, one of the country's leading insolvency experts, has told the firm he is leaving - in nine months time.

He will continue, however, to be associated with the firm officially for almost another five years. The lengthy notice will allow Mr McSwiney to finish off certain projects and to continue to do some consultative work.

However, he says, he will be careful of the amount of time his consultative role takes up. "There's no point saying I'm resigning as a partner and then continuing to do all the work a partner does," he says.

His resignation from BDO, which has grown from three partners and 30 staff to 30 partners and 280 staff, will give him time to "put into practice what I've been preaching for the past 20 years."

Over the years, as insolvency has slackened off - due to the economic boom - Mr McSwiney has found himself becoming more and more involved in advising companies on how to rescue their businesses, by changing direction or expanding or closing down certain operations.

His new role will involve advising companies who he introduced to the firm. Companies such as Boss Trucks (Irl), of which he is chairman and Corporate Imaging Ltd (a printing company) in which he has a 25 per cent stake as well as several other companies.

"I felt that when the next recession comes around I would become fully immersed in insolvency work again and I had to decide whether I wanted to do that."

He decided he did not and so has opted for a new career direction.

His experience as a receiver and liquidator has brought him into contact with every conceivable type of business, from pig farms, to shops and computers. He has sold everything, from lawn mowers to half-built houses.

Over the years he has been associated with receiverships such as the H Williams chain, the Gallagher group and McCartin's Piggery in Leitrim. He also advised on bringing Qualceram, the Wicklow-based bathroom furniture makers, to the Irish stock market.

However, he is perhaps best known in the public mind for his work on liquidating the Taylor Group, formerly run by missing insurance broker Mr Tony Taylor. Around £1.8 million of client funds is said to be missing. The group of companies was liquidated in August 1996, following the appointment of a Department of Enterprise and Employment officer to the firm. It followed complaints from clients who said they could not get their money.

Mr McSwiney admits that in his 20 years of insolvency the Taylor group liquidation has probably been the most demanding, in terms of time and complexity. He will not be able to close the file on it for another couple of years.

The case shook the faith of many investors and has resulted in a number of changes in how the insurance industry is regulated. The key question is, could it happen again?

"There is always potential for a similar situation to arise," he says. "In a system where people hand over their money to others to manage, there's potential for money to go missing."

He says "there now seems to be a commitment to put in a regulatory authority and the Central Bank would appear to have the people with the ability to regulate," he says.

He says there must be a rigidly monitored system of consumer protection where third party money is being handled. He also says there are lessons to be learned from the Taylor affair.

"The first lesson for us all is that we tend to do things in financial terms on a trust basis," he says.

"It's all very well to trust individuals, but you should be happy that the organisations they are working for are properly bonded and registered," he says.

In the Taylor case, the total bond available was only £50,000.

"I think the bonding levels which were available to people who lost money in the Taylor case were very low. If bonds are to become acceptable as security in these cases they should be set at very high levels," he says.

To some extent though, the individual consumer has to be vigilant. "The danger in regulation for regulation sake is that you put in place cumbersome regulation that makes it very expensive to operate and the consumer pays highly for that security.,

He says there are always people around who try to find ways around the system.

"If we see somebody offering returns that are greater than what's normally available in the marketplace, it should put us on our guard. There has to be some risk attached to the investment if there is such a good reward."

Much of Mr McSwiney's work has involved trying to rescue firms, to sell them as going concerns, or to wind them up and recover monies for creditors.

He says that the most common factor in companies in difficulty is bad management. He defines this as managers not realising early on that the business was not viable and therefore not taking steps to change it. "Many people are very successful in business, but once the business runs into difficulty they don't know how to change it."

Mr McSwiney says that to change aspects of a particular business, is sometimes seen by managers as an admission of failure. "The most successful managers are the ones who realise they need to make changes or need help," he says.

He says the most difficult thing he has ever had to do and still finds difficult was to tell people in stricken companies that they were being made redundant.

"Quite often the announcement that the company is in trouble comes as a complete shock to employees," he says.

Nor is the receiver or liquidator and his team always welcome, especially in com panies where feelings are running high.

In one case, at McCartin's Piggery in Leitrim, Mr McSwiney and some other staff were in a car which was overturned by angry staff. On emerging from the car, they suffered the added indignity of having pig slurry thrown at them. The only thing really hurt was their pride, he recalls.

Paddy McSwiney left SKC, as a director, to join BDO Simpson Xavier as a partner. While in SKC, he worked with some of the country's leading insolvency experts. He began his career with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (SKC), now known as KPMG. He shared an office with other well-known insolvency experts including Laurence Crowley, Ray Jackson, David Hughes and Bernard Somers.

All know each other quite well, the insolvency business is a small one. He also knows his business partners well. They socialise together and their children know one another.

He says his partners understood his decision to leave the company and take a new direction. A long lead-in time will give the partners plenty of time to find a replacement, he says.

However, one way or another, it is a safe bet that the 44-year-old Paddy McSwiney will remain in business for a long time to come.