IBI exit, the burden on middle-earners and our data centres blunder

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

Dublin-based corporate financier Liam Kiely has left IBI Corporate Finance in recent weeks, months after joining the firm to head up its technology and healthcare division. Joe Brennan reports.

Exempting so many low-paid workers from the income tax base is placing an unfair burden on middle-income earners, the Irish Tax Institute has said. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

In her weekly column Karlin Lillington wonders if our open-arms policy on data centres is coming back to bite us?

Eoin Burke-Kennedy takes a look at the factors driving inflation and the likely consequences.

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When the opening whistle of the 2022 men's Six Nations is blown at the Aviva Stadium on February 5th, it will mark a new era of unprecedented co-operation between two long-standing and often fierce rivals: RTÉ and Virgin Media. Laura Slattery reports.

Nominations have opened for this year's EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards, which is now in its 25th year. This year's programme will see 24 companies from across the island selected to compete across three categories – emerging, industry and international – with eight finalists chosen per award. In addition, a new award is to be presented to the finalists seen to be making the biggest contribution towards environmental sustainability through their business. Charlie Taylor has the details.

The "resilient" global airline industry's recovery from the Covid-19 crisis is "now under way across much of the world", but business travel "remains more problematic" than leisure travel and some aircraft cabins will need to be reconfigured as a result, writes Laura Slattery.

Cantillon finds companies gearing up for the battle for talent and wonders what will happen with the OECD global tax deal as momentum stalls.

Want to live in a smart home? Well Ciara O'Brien has some advice on how to make that happen.

Olive Keogh meets three lockdown start-ups with innovative, market-ready ideas.

The 2021 Irish Times Innovation Awardswill be held later this year. A record number of entries have been received, and some 15 companies across five sectors have been shortlisted for the awards, with the overall prize going to one of the category winners.

This week we profile the shortlisted companies across the New Frontiers, Sustainability, and IT & Fintech sectors. These companies will be given the opportunity to present to our panel of judges, who will then have the difficult choice of choosing a winner.

In 2013 Fergal McGrath, alongside his physicist brother Oran, co-founded Dilosk, a non-bank lender that offers mortgages in Ireland under the ICS brand. On our Inside Business podcast he talks to Ciarán about Ireland's mortgage market and Dilosk's place in it. They also discuss the likelihood of an interest rate increase this year.

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Conn Ó Midheach

Conn Ó Midheach

Conn O Midheach is Assistant Business Editor - Digital of The Irish Times