News

A plan to apply stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction targets on different parts of the economy will not go to Cabinet next week, as had been planned. Instead, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan will continue to engage with his Cabinet colleagues on how that burden should be shared – with agricultural emissions the most controversial issue.…

National Lottery ticket sales exceeded €1 billion last year, up 14.7% on the previous year, according to operator Premier Lotteries Ireland full year results for 2021. For the sixth consecutive year, growth was recorded in the money raised for good causes, which amounted to €304 million euro last year. The company said that approximately 90%…

The euro advanced against the dollar after Russia resumed gas supplies to Europe and the European Central Bank surprised markets with a 0.5 percentage-point rate hike. The advance by the single currency came on a mixed day for European stocks but a good session on Wall Street, where equities advanced for a third straight day.…

The state agency established to help fund the delivery of new homes grew loan approvals to €1.16bn at the end of June 2022. That was an increase of 38% on the €835 million approved by the end of 2021. It was Home Building Finance Ireland’s busiest ever six-month period based on loan approvals. HBFI was…

The Government has announced funding of €5 million over five years for a new construction technology centre, which will accelerate research and innovation within the construction sector. The centre will be based at NUI Galway, and the consortium includes Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and University College Cork working with the Irish Green Building…

Consumer sentiment has dropped to a 21-month low this month on broad based concerns about the economy. In particular the KBC Bank Ireland consumer sentiment index found consumers were worried about severe financial pressures around their household finances. Overall the index fell from 57.7 in June to 53.7 in July, despite a surprise 2.2 point…

Asking prices for used cars rose 29% in the year to the end of June, new research from DoneDeal has found. According to the listings website, prices being sought for cars are now 63.7% higher than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The rapidly rising costs are being driven by an ongoing supply demand…

A new upskilling programme has been launched to help financial services employees who will be impacted in the coming months by redundancies in the banking sector. As Ulster Bank and KBC prepare to exit the Irish market, the ‘Skills Ignite for Financial Services’ scheme will support workers who wish to develop in-demand skills and improve…

Nearly two thirds of construction companies here are finding it difficult to recruit skilled workers, according to a survey of over 300 firms here conducted by Core Research on behalf of software firm, Autodesk. They put the difficulty down to a lack of career options and negative perceptions about working in the industry, as well…

A new survey reveals that 57% of women in Ireland feel obligated to work while sick when working remotely, compared with just 34% of men. The survey, from HR technology firm Workhuman, also found that 40% of women in Irish workplaces feel mentally exhausted and drained after the working day compared to 32% of men.…