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Greenhouse gas blues for Government; Revenue’s €1m tax win; and where is best for duty free

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

Eurostat says greenhouse gas emissions jumped over 12 per cent in Ireland at the end of last year at a time when they were falling across the European Union as a whole by 4 per cent. Photograph: Kendrick Brinson/The New York Times

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Tue May 16 2023 - 06:51

European figures show Irish greenhouse gas emissions surged late last year at a time when they were falling across most of Europe, but a spokeswoman for environment minister Éamon Ryan says the figures are distorted. Barry O’Halloran reports.

A foreign-registered business that deals in distressed property loan portfolios across Europe has lost a €1.09 million battle with the Revenue Commissioners over capital gains tax, writes Gordon Deegan

US computer chip maker Analog Devices has announced a €630 million expansion of its Limerick plant in a move that will see it employ an additional 600 people and keeps the Irish operation at the cutting edge of wafer production.

Property developer Paddy McKillen has dismissed as lies claims in British court documents that he sought to hire a non-gay manager for London’s Claridge’s hotel and disparaged a Spanish woman contractor.

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Canadian private equity group Brookfield has put holiday resort firm Center Parcs up for sale, seeking up to €5.75 billion in what is a challenging market for investors given rising interest rates and falling property markets.

US president Joe Biden has indicated ahead of meetings with senior Congressional officials that he is optimistic a deal can be reached with his Republican political opponents on raising the US debt ceiling. However, US House speaker Kevin McCarthy sounds much less confident on that. Martin Wall reports from Washington DC.

Closer to home, Ireland’s economy remains on a “solid growth path”, according to the latest European Commission forecasts which were largely good news for those states that had to be bailed out after the financial crisis. But, Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports the Commission warned of the risk to the economy of “housing undersupply”.

A report by the Irish Council of Civil Liberties says that three-quarters of the decisions reached by Ireland Data Protection Commission have been overruled by EU peers in favour of tougher measures. Ciara O’Brien reports that just eight companies have accounted for 87 per cent of cross-border cases to come before the DPC so far.

Plans for a 140-apartment scheme over restaurants and shops at Glenageary roundabout have been submitted to Dún Laoghaire County Council. A previous plan was rejected last year.

Permanent TSB has completed the acquisition of another 8,000 performing non-tracker residential mortgage loans from Ulster Bank in advance of the lender’s exit from the Irish market.

Pulling the plug on a planned new student centre over surging construction costs has left Maynooth University €1.68 million out of pocket, according t its annual report.

In her column, Laura Slattery writes that when film studios and streamers skimp on the screenwriting process, everybody is short-changed as she looks at the Writers Guild of America clash with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over pay and conditions – billed by one picketing member as “guild versus evil”.

In Q&A, we look at what charges you might expect to pay if you decide to invest in AVCs and also how family loans given on trust can come back to bite you.

And Fiona Reddan takes a look at the best way to travel this summer if duty free shopping is on your wishlist.

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