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Corporation tax delivers again; billionaires take a hit; and thousands of new homes

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath is sitting on another round of corporation tax windfalls. Photograph: Alan Rowlette

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Wed Apr 5 2023 - 06:31

Corporation tax was once again the story of the exchequer returns as last year’s outsize figures paled against the tax take from business in the first quarter of 2023. Eoin Burke-Kennedy writes that the Government is already adjusting expectations as corporation tax came in €1.3 billion higher than the €1.9 billion it clocked up in the first three months of last year.

Analysing those numbers, he looks at plans by Minister for Finance Michael McGrath to use a good part of the surplus to fund a new long-term scheme to defray the future cost of State pensions.

Ireland’s nine billionaires had a torrid time last year. With the exception of Dermot Desmond, they all lost money, according to the latest Forbes Billionaire List, with the Collison brothers to the fore as more than a third was wiped of the billionaires collective wealth. Colin Gleeson reports..

As President Michael D Higgins signed the Work Life Balance Act into law, Emmet Malone writes that the first provisions are expected to be in place within a matter of weeks, with employees to be entitled to up to five days of unpaid leave a year to tend to the medical needs of close relatives.

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Almost 560,000 people will travel through two State airports over the Easter weekend as the holiday season builds towards its summer peak and passenger numbers surpass their pre-Covid levels. Barry O’Halloran has the details.

Emissions from Irish power generators and large industrial companies fell by 4 per cent last year but they are still generating more emissions than they did before the pandemic, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, Kevin O’Sullivan reports.

In a rash of approvals, An Bord Pleanála has given the green light for 2,341 new homes at four sites across north Dublin as it moved to clear the backlog of fast-track strategic housing development cases on its books. Gordon Deegan reports that the board still has 88 active fast-track cases on file.

It comes as Dublin City Council tells the ESB that it has not provided sufficient justification for a planned gas-fired at its Poolbeg power station to fill in the gaps when renewables go calm. Gordon Deegan reports.

In her column, Sarah O’Connor looks at the lessons other countries can learn from Spain as it finally looks to support its most vulnerable workers.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court judgment from last year that had erased the security held by banks and funds through liens based on land certificates in “hundreds” of lending cases. An adverse decision would have seen lenders having to write off tens of millions of euro in loans, writes Ian Curran.

Ronald Quinlan writes in commercial property that a building at the entrance of Temple Bar as Dame Street and Parliament Street, once home to Thomas Reades is on the market looking for €7.5 million.

And Savills Keven Sweeney reports on a recovery on one of Ireland’s landmark shopping streets – Dublin’s Henry Street, which is catching up on its southside rival Grafton Street.

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