Tax on wage subsidies, scheme criticisms ‘without foundation’ and straight talking

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

Pilita Clark: New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is a straight talker.

Workers may face a tax bill on emergency payments of up to €410 a week from their employer under the Government's wage subsidy scheme. Dominic Coyle has the details.

The head of insolvency at one of Ireland's top corporate law firms has warned that recent criticisms of the State's scheme to pay 70 per cent of workers wages through the Covid-19 crisis are "without foundation" and risk "social disaster", writes Mark Paul.

The housing market was making a recovery in the first quarter of 2020 after a lull sparked by Brexit, but its progress has been swept away by the Covid-19 crisis, according to the latest quarterly report by property site Myhome.ie. Mark Paul reports.

Irish-founded educational technology group Olive has launched a new online training platform that it expects will add an extra €8 million to company revenues by year-end 2022. Charlie Taylor reports.

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An index tracking business and consumer sentiment plunged to a historic low earlier this month and the fall is likely just the "tip of the iceberg" compared to what is in store in coming months, reports Mark Paul.

Code Institute, an educational technology company that teaches coding over the web to customers including the staff of multinationals, has raised €1.2 million in funding to fuel an international expansion. Mark Paul reports.

Pilita Clark admires the straight talking virtues of leaders such as Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Cuomo that are indispensable in the Covid-19 crisis.

In our Inside Business podcast Joe Brennan and Mark Paul join host Laura Slattery to discuss the evolving economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. Plus Cork native Emer Downing joins Laura on the line from her home in Bergamo, Italy, to speak about daily life under lockdown.

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Conn Ó Midheach

Conn Ó Midheach

Conn O Midheach is Assistant Business Editor - Digital of The Irish Times