IMF’s warning on tax cuts, Smyths toystores expansion, and Horan snubs INBS inquiry

The budget is still five months away but already words of advice are pouring in for the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe. The IMF urged the Government on Monday not to cut taxes in the upcoming budget, warning it risked "over-stimulating" Ireland's fast-growing economy. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details

The bid by family-owned Irish retailer Smyths Toys to buy the central European assets of Toys R Us will be considered by a US bankruptcy judge on Tuesday. Mark Paul has sifted through the hundreds of pages of material filed in recent days giving an insight into the proposed €79 million deal, which would add 93 stores in Germany, Austrian and Switzerland to Smyths existing 110-store UK and Irish network.

There must be some red faces at the Central Bank of Ireland after its former senior official Con Horan failed to show up to give evidence at the inquiry into the collapse of Irish Nationwide Building Society. Horan works for the European Banking Authority in London now, and said he was on holiday and so unable to attend an inquiry set up by his former employer. Joe Brennan reports.

Cantillon muses on how the inquiry might deal with Horan's snub and how the Central Bank must feel about this embarrassing turn of events.