State saving millions; who owns the private hospitals; and how to succeed at reopening the economy

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

Conor O’Kelly, chief executive, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA). Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

Ireland will save hundreds of millions in interest payments on its debt at a time when it is looking to fund the fallout from the Covid-19 crisis after the NTMA redeems a €10.6 billion bond on Monday. Joe Brennan has the details.

Still with coronavirus, Mark Paul takes a look at the 19 private hospitals around the State that will share €115 million a month after being taken over by the State for the duration of the crisis. Who owns them and just how profitable are they?

The Central Statistics Office is launching a new snapshot survey of how Covid-19 is affecting Irish business. The online survey will go out to 3,000 companies this week with the results due within a fortnight.

On to better news, while many companies are forced to cut or furlough staff, Facebook is still actively hiring in Ireland, reports Charlie Taylor. The social media group is currently in the market for hundreds of staff, including 50 at its its financial services subsidiary Calibra which is overseeing the libra cryptocurrency project.

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And in the North, seafood provider Rooney Fish has shipped its first orders to China since Covid shut down that economy, writes Francess McDonnell. With much of its European business still in lockdown, the scramble now is for flights and ships to get its brown crabs to a key market.

Covid-19 projects are providing work for 90 per cent of Irish advertising agencies at the moment, but the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) tells Laura Slattery that the outlook is still very difficult.

Having figured out that a lockdown is the best way to "flatten the Covid curve", Chris Johns is cautiously optimistic that we can make a success of reopening the economy. Much depends on the quality of leadership, he writes: the risk lies in the primacy of politics over science.

For her part, Pilita Clark throws a spotlight on four important leadership lessons from New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern that have helped her navigate the coronavirus crisis with a competence and compassion lost to many other leaders.

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Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle is Deputy Business Editor of The Irish Times