Postal row threatens Christmas, North’s recession and pension auto enrolment

A row has broken out between An Post and the UK’s Post Office about the implementation of post-Brexit customs rules, which are leading to thousands of online purchases by Irish customers being returned each day to smaller British retailers. Mark Paul reports

After almost two decades in gestation, a plan to automatically enrol hundreds of thousands of workers around the State into a pension scheme looks set to come to fruition. Fiona Reddan examines how auto enrolment will work and what it will mean for workers.

If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your pocket try signing up to On the Money, the new weekly newsletter from our personal finance team for Irish Times subscribers. You can read the latest edition of the newsletter here.

Almost half of advertising by social media influencers is untagged or poorly tagged, while consumers overestimate their ability to recognise such ads, research by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has found. Laura Slattery reports on the findings.

A chill on Apple’s fortunes may be abating

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Student accommodation: A market plagued by bed shortages, rising rents and 51-week leases

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An attempt to buy the next election with a giveaway budget would be a gross miscalculation

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The outlook for interest rate cuts is changing - so should Irish borrowers be worried?

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Northern Ireland’s economy is expected to fall into recession next year in the face of high inflation, low consumer confidence and higher borrowing costs, a report from Danske Bank has warned. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

What does the future hold for Irish bricks and mortar retail? Cantillon offers a view based on two recent events.

In our personal finance Q&A, a reader who is set to inherit more than the €335,000 from his parents wonders if the parents can leave some of the funds to his wife to reduce the inheritance tax bill. Dominic Coyle offers some guidance.

In media and marketing, Laura Slattery looks at the reasons for recent high-profile strikes by media workers, including at the New York Times.

In Me & My Money, Cork-born poet and publisher Alison Hackett says she never haggles but “I do occasionally enter into careful negotiations with the individual I’m dealing with for a product or service”.

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