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PwC’s Government business; falling house prices; and paying a price for greenwashing

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

TD Catherine Murphy is throwing a spotlight on PwC's government business here as the firm's scandal-hit Australian operation is forced to offload a unit that delivered up to 20 per cent of its revenues. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA Wire

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Mon Jun 26 2023 - 06:29

Fallout from the ongoing scandal at PwC’s Australian business continues with Social Democrats TD quizzing Government departments here on their links with the Big Four advisory group’s Irish arm. It comes as the Australian business is forced to sell its Government advisory business which used to account for a fifth of revenues for a pittance as it is being shut out of contracts. John Burns reports

Mixed messages from the latest Daft.ie report on house prices. Asking prices rose quarter-on-quarter for the first time in the past year but, on an annual basis, they were lower than this time last year, the first time prices have fallen in three years. Ian Curran makes sense of the figures.

In Opinion, consumer champion Brendan Burgess says talk of reintroducing mortgage interest relief is misplaced and that any help going should focus on first-time buyers.

Greenwashing will prove costly for Irish business and public bodies, a US environment lawyer warns, as increased litigation will focus on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) claims being made and whether they are delivered, writes Joe Brennan.

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As primary schools finish up their term and state examinations come to an end, Ryanair says the biggest threat to this year’s peak travel season is potential industrial action by French air traffic controllers, with the EU having little chance of getting a grip on the situation this year. Ian Curran reports.

Elsewhere, Irish consumers are paying more than people anywhere else in the European Union, with Eurostat data showing prices here were 46 per cent above the EU average, but are consumers themselves part of the problem? Eoin-Burke-Kennedy examines the issue.

Business is committed to investing in sustainability, a new report says, but their want more clarity on the costs and benefits, especially with little pressure form stakeholders to spend money going green and a background of rising interest rates and costs.

Miranda Green steps for Pilita Clark this week and asks whether the abandoning of our professional pose as we burden colleagues with the details of our messy post-pandemic personal lives might carry a cost later on in our careers.

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