In an interview with the Business Post, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers highlighted that the incoming Trump administration poses risks for trade and inward investment into the Republic – at a time when demand from key markets in Europe is stagnating.
He said the era of friction-free, cross-border trade “appears to be ending”, according to the report, and that deglobalisation could prove challenging for the State, a small open economy that has benefited from decades of globalisation.
The Minister reiterated his department’s forecast that the Government’s budget surplus for 2025 will come in just under €10 billion. The official projection from the department at the time of the unveiling of Budget 2025 in early October was €9.7 billion.
Lumcloon founder eyes data centre in Westmeath
Nigel Reams, the founder of Irish-based project development company Lumcloon Energy, has launched plans for a €1 billion data centre in Co Westmeath, the Business Post also reported.
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Red Admiral DC, where Reams is chief executive, will have some dependence on the national grid, but will mainly generate, store and manage its own energy on-site using a combination of technologies, the report cited a spokesman for the company as saying.
The plan comes even as outgoing Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan has said that no new data centres will receive grid connection until 2030, as the power system seeks to play catch up. Only one data centre secured grid connection last year, a project developed by Echelon in Wicklow.
Government pauses minimum wage increase for migrant workers
The Government has decided not to impose an increase, scheduled for this month, in the minimum pay for work permit holders, holding off until after a review of the matter is carried out, following complaints from businesses, the Sunday Times reported.
The so-called minimum annual remuneration (MAR) is the lowest annual salary for which an employment permit can be issued. Salary thresholds were due to rise 15 per cent across most sectors this month. Officials are considering whether to revise the timeline for the increase or devise a new mechanism.
The Government issued a record 38,189 employment permits last year, marking a 24 per cent increase on 2023, amid heightened demand for workers from nurses to tech sector staff in a tight labour market.
Indian nationals topped the list of workers to secure permits to work in the Republic, totalling 13,147, followed by individuals from Brazil (4,458), the Philippines (3,944), China (1,903) and Pakistan (1,690).
Revenue seeks wind-up of Blackbee Group
The Sunday Times reported that Revenue has lodged an application for the wind-up of Blackbee Group, the Cork-based investment group founded by David O’Shea, whose regulated Blackbee Investment unit was put into liquidation in May 2023. The application will be heard in the High Court on January 13th.
More than 1,600 former clients of BlackBee Investments, the Cork-based investment firm that collapsed into liquidation in May 2023, have filed claims with the State’s investor compensation scheme, the Investor Compensation Company Limited (ICCL) said in its latest annual report last month.
It remains unclear whether the losses will be compensated, as the joint liquidators are yet to conclude their investigations. The liquidation was on foot of a move by the Central Bank of Ireland, which had €180 million of assets under management at the time. The regulator had been concerned about governance, strategy and the firm’s financial position.
The High Court also moved last month to wind up City Quarter Capital II, a Blackbee investment vehicle, which allegedly acted as an issuer of loan notes and failed to file accounts for some six years.
Councils issue 2,000 vacant site notices
Local authorities across Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick have issued more than 2,000 notices to owners of derelict properties and sites across the State’s main cities as they ramped up investigations, the Sunday Independent reported.
A vacant site levy was introduced in 2019 and currently carries a 7 per cent rate. Some €517,000 was collected by way of levies last year, more than three times the figure for 2023, the report says. It adds that some councils have started taking a hard line against owners who have not paid the levies.
Cork City Council, for example, has begun the process to secure charges over derelict properties where levies have not been paid.
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