Banks to be fined over trackers, small town woes and is the recovery being squandered?

Some of the six Irish lenders under investigation by the Central Bank in relation to the State's €1 billion tracker mortgage scandal can expect to receive multimillion euro fines next year, reports Joe Brennan. You can read our Interview of the Week with Philip Lane here.

Aircraft financier Avolon has taken back control of four aircraft that it had leased to Wow Air, the troubled Icelandic budget airline, reports Barry O'Halloran

Small towns in Ireland are suffering a long drawn-out decline with urgent action needed to ensure their survival, according to a new report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), writes Charlie Taylor

Revenue has apologised to about 1,500 people after wrongly taking hundreds of thousands of euro from their bank accounts over recent days as a result of a "payment processing" error. Brian Hutton reports.

Datalex appoints former Nama executive as CFO

---

Defined-benefit pension plans’ progress slips in last few months

---

Irish aircraft lessors broker deals with Brazilian manufacturer

---

Euro zone economic confidence slips for 11th straight month

---

Northern Ireland's Chamber of Commerce has called on politicians to get on board with the UK's draft withdrawal agreement with the EU or outline an alternative to it. Peter Hamilton reports.

Denis O'Brien's telecommunications group Digicel has indicated to creditors that it may not meet its debt-burden target for its current financial years, as the sale of unwanted assets drag on, according to sources, reports Joe Brennan.

Ireland's largest defined benefit pension plans managed to wipe out their deficits early this year, only to see them re-emerge as markets took a tumble in the past two months, according to a new study, writes Dominic Coyle.

In Agenda, Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports that the Government has been accused of squandering the recovery but the Minister for Finance denies this. Who is right?

Newly filed accounts for the FAI show incomefrom international matches rose by €1.6 million to €15.7 million in 2017, writes Charlie Taylor.

Former rugby star Gareth Thomas tells Charlie Taylor about the importance of a diverse workplace and the impact of a recent homophobic attack.

In Planet Business Laura Slattery wanders the byways of business on your behalf.

Ross, Anna and Peter Doyle of Doyle Bloodstock tell us how the business was shielded from the effects of the downturn by regional diversification and clients in France, Scandinavia and the UK.

Our weekly columnist John FitzGerald outlines why cash for third level is money well spent.

Facebook's financial statements show that the 1,008 staff directly employed last year by Facebook Ireland each received an average salary of €95,766. Add in share payments, bonuses and so on, and the average pay packet of a Facebook Ireland staff member in 2017 was €154,000, up from about €140,000 in 2016 and €123,000 the year before. That is just the average, marvels Caveat.

In our latest Inside Business of Sport podcast deals with sports agents..

Stay up to date with all our business news: sign up to our business news alerts and our Business Today daily email news digest.