Debt sums, festival fun and betting on renewables

Ultra-low borrowing costs have helped the NTMA save €3 billion a year servicing Ireland's gargantuan national debt. But Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports that we still paid €60 billion in interest over the past 10 years, three times the amount we spent in the previous decade as the price of the crash continues to be felt.

Eoin also reports Paschal Donohoe's assurances that incoming Central Bank of Ireland governor Gabriel Makhlouf will make a statement on his controversial handling of a budget leak in New Zealand before he take sup his post in September.

What's not to like about music festivals? Not a lot if you are concert promoter Denis Desmond who has just taken a £2.8 million dividend out his Festival Republic UK business, writes Gordon Deegan, after pretax profit jumped 57 per cent to £7.78 million.

Utility Energia is betting big on renewables with plans to spend more than €3 billion on renewable infrastructure over the next five years, the company said yesterday. Peter Hamilton has the details.

Who really drives the economy - Facebook, Google, or you?

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I have the world’s worst neighbours either side of me

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Nine Goodman companies made largely untaxed profit of €170m

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Ireland paid over €60bn interest on national debt in 10 years

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Nine companies in the Goodman Group made a profit of €170 million last year, with the bulk of the profits booked in Luxembourg and largely untaxed.

Simon Hamilton, the Democratic Unionist who was finance minister until the collapse of the Stormont Executive, has turned his back on politics to take up his new role as chief executive of Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, writes Francess McDonnell. And with a membership where 78 per cent back the current Brexit withdrawal agreement, he could quickly find himself at odds with his former party colleagues.

Everyone is keen to let us know how much they are contributing to the economy. Airbnb says it was worth more than €700 million to Ireland Inc in 2018 while the pharmaceutical sector commissioned PwC to pull together a pan-EU report that says Ireland gains to the tune of €14.7 billion.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe is also keen to get a fix on who is winning and losing in the economy, writes Fiona Reddan. And how foreign institutional investors are impacting Ireland's property market is just one of the areas to be considered later this month, along with betting duty, carbon tax, as the Minister prepares for his budget.

Sticking with the economy, we keep hearing a lot about the massive surge in corporation tax from a handful of companies but, having crunched the numbers, Fiona discovers the bulk of our tax revenues still comes from the squeezed middle and not from big business.

Finally, what will become of the RTE Guide? That's the question Bernice Harrison asks in her media column as the publication looks like the latest asset to be cashed in by the broadcaster that last week reported a €13 million deficit for last year.

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