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Inflation hit for home buyers, railway profits, and cost of new pension rules

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Almost half of prospective homebuyers surveyed by MyHome.ie said rises in the cost living had affected their ability to buy, while the same was true of almost two-thirds of prospective new renters. Photograph: Cyril Byrne / THE IRISH TIMES

Ciarán Hancock's face
Ciarán Hancock
Mon Aug 29 2022 - 06:30

New research by property website MyHome.ie, which is part of the Irish Times media group, found that almost half of prospective homebuyers surveyed said rises in the cost living had affected their ability to buy, while the same was true of almost two-thirds of prospective new renters. Mark Paul has the details.

Do you know what a seventh minus an eighth is? And how would you feel if you had to quickly spit out the answer in a job interview? FT columnist Pilita Clark argues that such tactics at interview are no way to hire the best staff, in spite of what Liz Truss, the favourite to become the UK’s next prime minister, might believe.

A Dublin company set up to avoid tax on a German railway concession run by the Netherlands’s state rail company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, recorded profits last year of €5 million. Mark Paul reports on the latest filing by this Dublin-based entity.

Employers here face annual bills of between €30,000 and €50,000 as they run out of time for complying with new European Union pensions rules, according to one senior industry insider. Dominic Coyle has the details.

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UK-based retailer Watches of Switzerland plans to open its first store in Ireland with a Tag Heuer “boutique” at Dundrum Town Centre. This follows just weeks after Paul Sheeran Jewellers agreed to lease the entire ground floor of the new Chatham & King development off Grafton Street, where he plans to sell watches in separate boutiques from some of the biggest luxury brands. Ciarán Hancock reports on this growing trend in luxury watch retailing.

Fáilte Ireland is seeking to hire consultants to examine how best to replenish and “green” the Shannon river’s aged and depleting fleet of rented cruise ships whose number has fallen by more than half since the early 1980s. Mark Hilliard has the details.

Irish start-up Protex AI has raised €18 million to help support the launch of its safety technology in Europe and the US, writes Ciara O’Brien.

In our Opinion piece, Patricia Callan of Financial Services Ireland argues that Ireland has much to do to become a top 20 global financial services hub.

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