About €267.8 million was paid by the State last year in pandemic wage supports to businesses that may also have paid dividends, according to an analysis by the Revenue Commissioners. Niall Cody, the chairman of Revenue, revealed the figure in a note to the public accounts committee in February after it asked him for details of businesses that made payments to shareholders while they were receiving taxpayer support. Mark Paul has the details.
Irish consumer sentiment fell to an 18-month low in April as concerns about living costs intensified. The latest KBC Bank Ireland index recorded another sharp month-on-month drop in sentiment as consumers worried about their future spending plans and the worsening economic outlook generally. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports,
House builder Cairn Homes is seeking permission for more than 370 apartments on a high-profile site previously earmarked for student accommodation. Cairn owns a site in Stillorgan, Dublin that formerly held a motor dealers and the once-popular Blake's Restaurant, writes Barry O'Halloran.
US private equity company Partners Group is believed to have paid close to €800 million to acquire a majority stake in Version 1, an Irish technology company. Partners is buying out the stake held by Volpi Capital, a UK private equity group that invested in the Irish business in 2017. Volpi bought out the founders at the time and has seen the business treble in size since then. Ciarán Hancock reports.
Columnist Karlin Lillington wonders is Ireland not pulling its weight when it comes to applying the GDPR?
Chris Horn finds that pressure is growing for better oversight of cryptocurrency.
New Innovator meets John Roche, the founder of Mote, a data-driven talent-sourcing engine that aims to make matches between scaling tech companies and potential hires in the burgeoning remote working environment.
Cantillon finds that Netflix has a password problem and wonders what the streamer will do about it? Our resident sage also reckons Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna will be the big winners in the vaccine shakeout.
The idea of robot home help is a compelling one, says Ciara O'Brien. Imagine being able to outsource all the tasks you hate, from vacuuming and mopping, to cleaning the windows and cutting the grass, as you want it, when you want it, and all you have to do is some routine maintenance every now and again. Find out how she got on putting one to the test.
Interpath Advisory, the UK-based corporate restructuring and insolvency firm, is planning to build up a practice in Ireland with 120 staff within the next three to four years, after poaching six partners from KPMG and Deloitte in Ireland. Its chief executive Blair Nimmo talks to Ciarán Hancock on our Inside Business podcast about Interpath's ambitious plans for its Irish arm.
Plus: Sixty years after it first launched, Golden Discs is opening a brand-new concept store POP! at their flagship Dundrum Town Centre retail unit, to coincide with Record Store Day 2022. Chief executive Stephen Fitzgerald, whose father Jack was one of the founders of Golden Discs in 1962, talks to Ciarán about POP!, vinyl’s renaissance and the future of one of Ireland’s best-known retail brands.
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