Housing underspend, Axa’s profits and Big Tech ain’t going anywhere

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

Workers monitor a crane lifting materials at a construction site in the Sandyford district of Dublin, Ireland, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The mass purchase of affordable houses — on the market for about 400,000 euros ($490,000) — set off a public firestorm and highlights the growing tension over the squeeze in urban housing and the role of large investors. Photographer: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg
The Government’s capital expenditure programme on housing is likely to significantly undershoot its target this year, according to data obtained from the Department of Housing, Photograph: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg

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The Government’s capital expenditure programme on housing is likely to significantly undershoot its target this year, according to data obtained from the Department of Housing, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy. Under its Housing for All strategy, launched last year, the Government pledged to spend €20 billion on social and affordable housing over the next five years, including €4 billion in both 2022 and 2023.

Axa Ireland, the largest general insurer on the island, saw its net profit rise 15 per cent last year to €112.7 million, as its claims losses declined and customer numbers and investment income grew, even as average motor premiums dipped. Joe Brennan has the details.

Karlin Lillington has heard it all before and she is still adamant that Big Tech has no intention of quitting Ireland.

Aongus Hegarty has a lot on his plate. The Irish executive took over as president of Dell’s international markets only a few months before Covid-19 shut the world down. Since then he has had to deal with a global chip shortage, the pandemic and then the impact of the war in Ukraine. Ciara O’Brien reports.

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New York-based insurance broker NFP, which entered the Irish market in 2020, has acquired Dublin-based health and life insurance adviser Tailored Finance for an undisclosed sum, writes Joe Brennan. NFP moved into the Republic in 2020 through the purchase of HMP Insurance and Pension Advisors and followed up with three more deals, at a total cost of €45 million.

A start-up founded by two former Intercom employees has raised a $16 million series A funding round to further develop its next generation spreadsheet tool that it hopes will replace Excel, writes Ciara O’Brien

Cantillon is of the opinion that the tech sector jobs bloodbath has not run its course and how Maxol has provided something of a window into how the fossil fuel industry views the climate agenda.

Musk's Twitter takeover troubles Irish regulators

Listen | 34:28

Ciara O'Brien on the troubles swirling around Twitter under the leadership of Elon Musk. The company this week met with the Irish Data Protection Commission to discuss concerns about upheaval at the company and how it could impact the safety of users and their data. Joe Brennan on the news that car insurers had a bumper year in 2021, enjoying the highest profits since 2009. The size of awards paid out plummeted but premiums only dipped slightly. Will cheaper premiums be on the way?

The threat of being hacked is a perennial worry for businesses everywhere and, with an estimated 2,200 incidents a day in the US alone, it’s a threat that needs to be taken seriously say Matt Conlon and Conor Flannery, founders of cybersecurity software start-up Cytidel, writes Olive Keogh.

“Aviation is not similar to other industries where you can, quite frankly, get to net zero a little bit more easily. This one is going to take a little bit more time.” They are not the words of an airline chief executive nor an engineer designing next-generation aero engines, but of Cathal Foley, a senior executive at Pace, part of Kilorglin-based investment and finance firm Fexco. Neil Briscoe reports.

With the popularity of digital cameras and, subsequently, smartphones, it might be difficult to see where instant cameras and their various accessories can fit in today’s world. So where does the new Instax Square Link smartphone printer fit in? Ciara O’Brien finds out.

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