Councils ‘wasting money’; business fraudsters; and how affordable housing plan will make things worse

Local authorities in Dublin have been accused of wasting taxpayers' money by leasing social housing units from the private sector when it would be significantly cheaper to buy them or build them directly, Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

Figures provided by Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin, show the average per unit cost of leasing social units across the State's 31 authorities. The highest figure recorded was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where the local authority paid an average of €18,698 per lease in 2020, which works out at €373,960 over a 20-year timeframe, the typical length of a lease.

Filling in for Chris Johns this week, Eoin looks at the Government's new shared equity loan scheme, ostensibly designed to boost home ownership. It will almost certainly do the opposite, writes Eoin, who cites a report carried out on London's experience with a similar scheme whihc led to a rise in prices but had no material impact on supply.

Charlie Taylor reports on a start-up that has developed a contact-free tipping solution. Strike has partnered with food chain Camile Thai to allow its customers to tip delivery drivers directly after cming up with patent-pending technology that seeks to resolve problems that have arisen from the demise of cash.

State’s affordable housing plan will only make things worse

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Dublin councils accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by leasing social housing

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Ronan’s 45-storey tower should be given green light, business group says

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Scammers hit third of Irish businesses in past year, survey finds

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Labelling Johnny Ronan's 40-plus-storey tower scheme for Dublin's docklands as a "Manhattan-style project" is extraordinarily ill-formed, a Docklands business forum has said in a submission to An Bord Pleanála over the proposed scheme of 1,005 apartments. However, An Taisce in its submission, described the proposed scheme as "hugely overblown". Gordon Deegan has the details.

Personal injury awards will be reduced because of the recent adoption of guidelines by judges and, it is expected, more claims will be settled without litigation, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has said. Colm Keena reports the department is seeking to enhance and reform PIAB so as to bring more cases within its ambit and reduce the number of cases that involve litigation.

Over a third of Irish businesses have been targeted by fraudsters in the past 12 months, according to a survey by Bank of Ireland. Email was the most common way to infiltrate a business, the survey found, followed by phone calls, with staff emails being the most likely to be compromised or targeted, Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

Eoin also reports on Ornua, owner of theKerrygold brand, which has just had a €50 million monkey lifted off its back after the EU and the US agreed to suspend tariffs introduced during the Trump admiinstartion for at least four months, in the hope that a resolution on the airline subsidy debacle which caused the tariffs can be reached.

In her column this week, Pilita Clark writes about how while getting her Covid-19 vaccine, she was struck by the cheeriness of the volunteers at the centre. She says working at somethign that is bigger than yourself an dhistorically significant can be very rewarding. Few companies can easily offer such meaning and purpose at work ,but that should not stop them from trying, she says.

Following the announcment last week of the National Treasury Management Agency's €42 million investment in Stripe, the organisation's chief executive Conor O'Kelly writes that the Irish-led tech group will produce excellent returns for State and believes Stripe will be a major player in growth of global online commerce in the years ahead.

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