Broadband plans, home-building numbers, tourism turbulence and payday for a Meath couple

The Minister for Communications, Richard Bruton, has denied reports of a further delay to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) amid speculation he had been due to bring the plan to Cabinet this week. Eoin Burke-Kennedy explains the current state of play.

Eoin also reports that talk of a slowdown in home-building may have been overstated with new figures showing a big uptick in building commencement notices nationally and in Dublin.

It comes as a report from Davy forecasts new mortgage lending will overtake repayments on home loans next year in the Republic for the first time since the outset of the financial crisis.

A Co Meath couple are due to get a payout of up to ¤266 million from the sale of their payment solutions business to an Australian company. Peter Hamilton reports.

Chris Johns: It’ll be déjà vu all over again when we start planning for a hard Brexit in 2020

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Barnier warns UK that unfair competition will not be tolerated

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Unemployment rate falls below 5% for first time since crash

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New mortgage lending to overtake repayments for first time since crisis

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Fáilte Ireland has blamed myriad factors including Brexit, the re-emergence of Turkey as a competitor destination, and the grounding of Boeing 737 Max aircraft for a "softening" of the tourism sector in 2019. Mark Paul reports on its plan to tackle the likely economic turblence in 2020.

Preparations for a new electricity interconnector linking Ireland and Wales have begun, with the first planning applications submitted. Ciara O'Brien has the details on plans to run the connection between Co Wexford and Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire.

In her media and marketing column, Laura Slattery warns that Ireland has a lot to lose from the Government's anti-RTÉ stance.

Finally, in personal finance, Brian Hutton asks if it is worth shopping around for a better deal on credit card interest, while Prionsias O'Mahony warns of the perils of "home bias" when it comes to investing.