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Hundreds of new GPs and 1,250 more hospital beds will be required if Simon Harris pledge on new homes is met

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

A GP at their desk. New ESRI research suggests that 1.5 GPs are required to service the healthcare needs of those living in every 1,000 new homes. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

Ciarán Hancock's face
Ciarán Hancock
Tue Apr 9 2024 - 06:30

One to two general practitioners (GPs) and five fully staffed hospital beds are required for every 1,000 new homes built in the Republic, according to research by the Economic and Social Research Institute. This means that Simon Harris’s pledge to build 250,000 homes over the next five years would necessitate an additional 375 GPs and 1,250 extra hospital beds. Eoin Burke-Kennedy examines the ESRI’s findings.

Simon Harris will become the State’s youngest Taoiseach today. What might he do come budget day in October? In our personal finance feature, Fiona Reddan examines the delicate balance he will face between raising revenue and keeping the electorate happy. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.

In our personal finance Q&A, a reader is trying to make sense of AIB’s share purchase offer to legacy shareholders, which would see 20 shares acquired for just €100. Dominic Coyle explains the details of what appears at first glance to be a paltry offer.

Laura Slattery has read the consultation documents for two new media funds that are set to offer €5 million in public funding to cover local news and the courts. In her weekly column, she outlines why this could lead to a bunfight among media publishers to secure the funding.

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Lottery betting business Lottoland says the Government Minister promoting new gambling laws has refused to meet the company to discuss concerns raised weeks ago. Barry O’Halloran has the details.

Investment activity in the State’s commercial property market fell to a new post-financial crisis low in the first quarter, according to estate agent Sherry FitzGerald. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

Homeowners who waited to switch lender until the ECB hiked rates missed peak savings, writes Cantillon, who has been reading the Central Bank of Ireland’s report on mortgage switching.

A New York-based activist investor has increased its stake in Newry tech firm FD Technologies, stock-exchange filings show. Barry J Whyte has the details.

Ireland has slipped two places in a ranking of countries where private businesses thrive, with a significant fall in the “macroeconomics” category due to the cost of living crisis. Colin Gleeson reports.

A stock bubble warning by Societe Generale’s Albert Edwards is overdone, writes Stocktake.

In Me & My Money, Amanda Torrens, the owner of Barberstown Castle in Straffan, Co Kildare recalls how she bought a racehorse and “in her first race I got the price back in a bet”. She was in conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea.

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