To the insurance sector first: The five largest general insurers in the Irish market racked up a combined €411 million financial hit on their investment portfolios last year, mainly made up of paper losses as the value of their bond portfolios fell amid soaring interest rates. Joe Brennan reports.
Air travel’s rebound rather than economic growth boosted Irish greenhouse gas emissions late last year, according to EU statisticians. That contradicts the Government’s own claim that its high GDP growth last year was responsible for Ireland being one of the few EU members to increase emissions at the end of last year. Barry O’Halloran and Naomi O’Leary report.
As the debt ceiling deadline looms, US president Joe Biden is set to cancel a planned visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea in an effort to secure a deal with Republicans led by Kevin McCarthy. Martin Wall reports.
In Money Matters, Brianna Parkins warns of the financial mistakes to avoid when it comes to holidays.
Mortgage holders to see dramatic fall in repayments
The Irish Times Business Person of the Month: Cathal Fay, Yuno Group
The power market should reflect that renewable energy is cheaper
Shed Distillery founder Pat Rigney: ‘We’re very focused on a premium position but also on giving value for money to consumers’
Barry also reports that regulators say they are aware of challenges faced by waste-to-energy plants required to turn down electricity generation when other power sources are available to the grid. A body representing Indaver in Duleek, Co Meath and Dublin Waste-to-Energy, says the Irish market loses enough electricity to supply 1,000 homes a year because they are prevented from generating power all the time.
A big development in the Debenhams workers saga. They have won a key legal battle in a challenge to their collective redundancies three years ago after a test case ended in an order for eight weeks’ pay for a breach of workplace rights. Stephen Bourke has the details.
The applicant behind plans to convert the former €1 million Bray seafront home of singer Sinéad O’Connor into apartments is contesting a council decision to refuse planning permission for the scheme. Gordon Deegan reports.
The High Court has appointed liquidators to an Irish-registered firm following a petition from an 81-year-old man who claims he invested $325,000 (€299,000) in what he thought was a cryptocurrency. Ellen O’Riordan was in court.
The new Lego store on Dublin’s Grafton Street opened to huge queues when it began trading last August. It recorded average weekly revenues of €213,547 last year, according to Gordon Deegan’s reporting.
Some good news on the back of Brookfield’s plan to sell Center Parcs. The sale of holiday resort firm Center Parcs will not lead to any job losses at its Longford facility or hinder its planned €100 million expansion, Colin Gleeson reports.
In a trenchant column, Martin Wolf compares the US debt ceiling crisis to the lunatics taking over the asylum. It’s well worth a read.
Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf has warned that fragmenting global trade could lead to higher and more volatile levels of inflation. Eoin Burke-Kennedy and Joe report.
Drinks group Britvic said its Irish business had shown a strong start to the year, mirroring the success of the wider Britvic group in the first half of the year. Ciara O’Brien has the details.
Two Kenmare Hotels have been put on the block with a combined asking price of more than €20 million. Ronald Quinlan reports on that as well as the former South Korean embassy on Clyde Road for sale for €4.75 million.
Ronald also has the details of the investor who has bought Dublin’s Metro Cafe building for €2.35 million, as well as how much the HQ of public relations firm Fleishmann Hillard is on the market for.
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