500 RTÉ contractors may face review, Fyffes’ record loss, and €73m for D15 apartments

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The Department of Social Protection has suggested the employment records of more than 500 current and former RTÉ contractors "may need to be investigated" to see if PRSI contributions should have been paid. Laura Slattery reports that in a briefing note for senior officials in mid-July, the department said it was "conscious of the resource-intensive nature" that these individual investigations – which could involve detailed interviews with the affected people – would have for both the department and RTÉ.

Laura also reports that media agencies expect Google and Facebook to benefit from the demise of third-party web cookies, putting Irish publishers who lose access to personalised data under further pressure, according to a report by Ignite Media Consulting.

Tropical fruits group Fyffes swung into a record loss of almost €170 million last year as it was forced to take large impairment charges against its melon and mushroom businesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic and group restructuring. Joe Brennan reports.

Demand for Irish-made goods continuedsoaring last month, but bottlenecks and rising costs slowed momentum, the latest figures show. AIB's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) hit 62.8 in August, less than the record 63.3 it reached the previous month, but still the fourth highest ever. Barry O'Halloran has the details.

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In his analysis of yesterday's CSO figures showing the Republic's population reached over 5 million for the first time since 1851, Eoin Burke-Kennedy writes that no European country has experienced a more unique, more traumatic population trajectory than Ireland –the only European country where the population is still lower than it was 170 years ago.

In Commercial Property,Ronald Quinlan writes that real estate private equity giant Palm Capital is closing in on the purchase for more than in excess of €200 million of the Core portfolio, a collection of industrial and logistics assets distributed across Dublin and the greater Dublin area.

Ronald also reports that having spent more than ¤500 million on 1,500 rental apartments in the 12 months following its establishment in 2018, Urbeo has returned to the acquisitions trail with the €73 million forward purchase of 211 new homes in Clonsilla in Dublin 15.

Fiona Reddan reports that a sitewith full planning permission for a major co-living scheme has come to the market in Dublin's Cork Street seeking €25 million.

You can read all the rest of today's Commercial Property news, here.

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Nora-Ide McAuliffe

Nora-Ide McAuliffe

Nora-Ide McAuliffe is an Audience Editor with The Irish Times