Couples struggling to buy a home even with State supports

First-time buyer couples with two incomes availing of the Government Help to Buy scheme still faces still struggle to afford a hole in Dublin or surrounding counties, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has said. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details on a story with few solutions in sight.

Ireland saw a “slight dip” in consumer confidence last month, which is already “well below” average even as shoppers in the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe grew more confident in their daily spending habits. Stephen Conneely has the story.

A huge proportion of people now actively avoid the news. Is that just because they feel the news is terrible, or are news organisations at least partially to blame? Hugh Linehan unpacks the issues at play in his column.

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has selected Dublin as its new European headquarters and is adding 250 jobs. Ian Curran reports.

The news learned to follow us everywhere. No wonder we are hiding from it

The mortgage is paid off; what can we do with the €800 a month now available to us?

US Federal Reserve’s direction of travel on interest rates has rarely been this opaque

Little evidence that Andy Burnham’s plan to devolve power to the regions will work

DCC formally accepted a KKR led offer to buy out the Irish company in a deal worth more than €6bn, despite some shareholder opposition. Joe Brennan has the story.

Continuing the M&A theme, Joe also reports that Irish Continental Group’s (ICG) shares soared in early trading on Monday as investors got their first chance to react to a €1.2 billion management buyout bid for the ferries operator led by chief executive Eamonn Rothwell.

Cantillon runs the rule over the fall out from both deals, while also looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision due later this week.

In Your Money, Dominic Coyle answers a question from a reader on what a reader should do with their spare cash now the mortgage is paid off, while comedian John Colleary takes us through his finances.

Improving a home’s building energy rating (Ber) can add up to €67,000 to the asking price of the property, research from the Central Bank indicates. Eoin has the story.

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