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House prices are down; bank’s ‘free cash’ letdown; and court frees man from €646,000 judgment

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

House prices in Dublin fell at the fastest annual rate in nearly three years in June. Photograph: iStock

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Thu Aug 17 2023 - 06:48

House prices in Dublin fell at the fastest annual rate in nearly three years in June, with higher interest rates curbing affordability, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy, who notes that prices nationally have also slowed considerably.

Bank of Ireland has assured customers there is no such thing as free money after the tech glitch that downed the bank’s app and online service while allowing people take money they didn’t even have out of their accounts. Meanwhile, the Central Bank is looking for answers on what went wrong.

Conor Pope tries to answer most of the questions the bizarre incident threw up in a Q&A.

Pepper Finance has been told it cannot pursue a Limerick man over a debt of €646,000 that was among a package of loans it acquired from ACCBank, even though the bank secured a court judgment for the sum over 10 years ago. Ellen O’Riordan was in court to hear why.

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Glanbia boss Siobhán Talbot has announced she is stepping down at the end of the year but she’s going out on high as the group reported higher interim earnings and upgraded full-year profit forecasts for the second time this year. Eoin Burke-Kennedy and Ciara O’Brien report.

Planners have approved a proposal for an 8,047-plot cemetery on the former golf course at Citywest Hotel in a move that could be worth €20 million to a subsidiary of Tetrarch Capital, writes Ciarán Hancock.

Pub group Wetherspoon is refusing to back down in a planning battle over a proposed sound barrier at its Camden Street operation that one local resident described as being “taller than the Berlin Wall”.

Car parks operator Q-Park has been given the green light by competition authorities to acquire rival Park Rite subject to a number of conditions.

With school holidays in full swing, it’s a busy time down at Center Parcs in Longford. Results for the Irish business show profit more than doubled in the 12 months to the end of April with an occupancy rate just shy of 98 per cent. Gordon Deegan has the details.

Card spending was down in July but the miserable weather was good news for cinemas where ticket sales more than doubled, according to an AIB report. Hotels and ticket sellers also benefited, with demand for top name concerts evident in the data.

One quarter of parents surveyed say they cannot afford electronic devices their children are expected to have for school and have had to seek financial aid, writes Ciara O’Brien.

In Technology, Karlin Lillington oozes derision at media held rapt by the ridiculous social media posturing over a cage fight that was never going to happen between Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter/X’s Elon Musk.

Ciara O’Brien looks at an Irish Covid-era start-up that combines artificial intelligence and human feedback to monitor your glucose levels, helping you to make better diet choices.

And Neil Briscoe is also preoccupied with artificial intelligence in Innovation where he considers the prospects of AI selling people second-hand cars and ponders what that might mean for the motor industry.

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