Exchequer bill of €50bn, new Apple products, and Chuck Feeney closes Atlantic Philanthropies

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

The bill to the exchequer from Covid-19 could hit €50 billion by the end of 2022, the employers' group Ibec has warned in its pre-budget submission. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

Veteran American entrepreneur Chuck Feeney has signed the papers to dissolve his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation that provided more than $8 billion (€6.8 billion) in grants over the past 38 years, including $1.3 billion to projects in the Republic and $570 million to projects in Northern Ireland. Ciarán Hancock reports.

At a virtual event at its US headquarters last night, Apple unveiled two new smartwatches and a new fitness service for Apple Watch users, as well as the eighth generation iPad with a new A12 Bionic chip that the company said was 40 per cent faster central processing unit (CPU) and offered a two times jump in graphics for users. Ciara O'Brien has all the details.

Businessman Denis O'Brien has filed a renewed legal attempt to gain access to communications such as texts and emails about him between the public relations company Red Flag Consulting and journalists and politicians. Mark Paul has the story.

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Bank of Ireland has paid €545,400 to holders of Young Savers accounts over a failure to properly communicate the interest rate that applied to the accounts. Some 2,700 customers have been compensated, Ciarán Hancock reports.

RTÉ News is launching a "truth matters" marketing campaign today to highlight the critical role of Irish journalism amid an "infodemic" of Covid-19 misinformation, Laura Slattery writes.

US real estate group Hines and its Dutch joint venture partners, APG Asset Management, have secured approval from An Bord Pleanála for the construction of 416 new homes on the former Bailey Gibson site on Dublin's South Circular Road, Ronald Quinlan writes.

Also in Commercial Property today, Ronald reports that No 1 Harbourmaster Place in the IFSC, home to tenants KPMG until 2026, is up for sale for €54 million, while chief executive of JLL Ireland John Moran tells us why the demise of the office is far from nigh.

In this week's business interview, Ciara O'Brien meets the new head of Google Ireland Nick Leeder, who tells her about starting the new job remotely in the midst of a pandemic, the challenges Google has experienced transforming into a fully virtual workplace in recent months, and how the company has no plans to withdraw from Ireland, despite the whispers circulating this week after they withdrew from the Sorting Office deal.

And finally, in his Bottom Line column, Eoin Burke-Kennedy asks, will Ireland's long winning streak on tax soon come to an end?

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Ciara Kenny

Ciara Kenny

Ciara Kenny, founding editor of Irish Times Abroad, a section for Irish-connected people around the world, is Editor of the Irish Times Magazine