Business News

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has said that the 10% stamp duty rate, which is applicable to international investors who buy more than ten residential properties, will be reviewed. He was replying in the Dáil to Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty, who said that such investors are block-buying new homes at a rate…

Building work began on 32,801 new homes last year, the highest number on record, new data shows. The figure for commencement notices lodged in 2023 compares to 26,957 in 2022, an increase of 21.5%. It follows a strong end to the year, where the number of commencement notices filed in December rose 76% compared to…

Oil prices rose today as the International Energy Agency (IEA) joined producer group OPEC in forecasting strong growth in global oil demand and as cold winter weather disrupted US crude output while the government reported a big weekly draw in crude inventories. Oil traders also worried about geopolitical risks in the Middle East. Pakistan conducted…

Wage growth in Ireland slowed at the end of 2023 and has dropped to 3.7% year-on-year, according to a new report from jobs site Indeed and the Central Bank of Ireland. The research shows that the wage growth rate in Ireland is below the 3.8% recorded across the euro area and the slowest since April…

Ireland has once again topped a league table of European countries for issuing data fines. The 2024 edition of global law firm DLA Piper’s annual GDPR and Data Breach Survey shows that supervisory authorities across Europe have issued a total of €1.78 billion in fines since 28 January 2023, which is an increase of 14.1%…

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Davos for the World Economic Forum, which has so far been dominated by the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Mr Varadkar is expected to meet a number of world leaders and hold bilateral talks with the chief executive officers of several global corporations. He arrived in Davos last…

The annual rate of inflation rose in December, driven by increases in prices in areas such as restaurants and hotels, mortgage interest repayments and rents and package holidays. The Consumer Price Index climbed to 4.6% in the year to the end of December, the Central Statistics Office said today. That compares to 3.9% in the…

The Government has launched a plan to boost growth in the digital creative industries. The roadmap will focus on commercial design, digital games and content creation including advertising and commercial social media content. The plan is designed to leverage the potential of the sectors for sustainable employment, export growth and regional development. Implementation of the…

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has said the Government will introduce flexibilities to the Tax Debt Warehousing Scheme. Speaking to RTÉ News in Davos, Mr McGrath said: “We are going to make some changes to the tax warehousing regime with a view to being as flexible as we possibly can. “We’ve been engaging with the…

Wind farms supplied a record 35% of all electricity used on the island of Ireland last year, according to the annual report of Wind Energy Ireland. This saved €1.6 billion, north and south, from having to be spent on imported gas and carbon credits that would have been required to burn it. As a result,…