Irish mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity fell in the second quarter, with Irish companies involved in deals valued at €3.7 billion, compared to €4.2 billion in the same period last year.

According to figures from corporate finance house Ion Equity, which tracks M&A business in the Irish market, the number of actual deals fell from 77 to 72 over the same period.

However, last year's figures were distorted by very large Babcock & Brown acquisition of Eircom and Ion Equity executive David O'Reilly said the underlying trend for mergers and acquisitions involving Irish companies was very healthy.

"If you strip out the Eircom acquisition, the value of second-quarter deals actually rose by 67 per cent over the same period last year," said Mr O'Reilly. "That represents a very significant increase."

Among the largest deals in the second three months of the year were:

•the Quinlan Private acquisition of Jurys Inns in a €1.165 billion deal;

•Capvest Partners' acquisition of Mater Private Healthcare for €350 million;

•CRH's purchase of Getaz Romang for €350 million;

•Paver Systems for €225 million and;

•Airport Investments' acquisition of the DAA's 24 per cent stake in Birmingham Airport for €305 million.

Mr O'Reilly said the third quarter has also begun strongly. "Already in July, we have seen Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin buy the Reed Elsevier educational publishing business for €3 billion, Denis O'Brien's Communicorp buy Today FM and two other radio stations for €200 million and DCC spend more than €70 million expanding its fuels business in the UK," he said.

Mr O'Reilly said "competitively-priced debt" was readily available and he expected deal volumes to grow steadily over the remainder of the year.