In short

A round-up of today's business news

2,500 joined dole queues last month

Almost 2,500 people lost their jobs in May, according to the latest redundancy figures. The data from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment indicates that redundancies in the first five months of 2008 are running 27 per cent ahead of the same period last year.

Among male workers, building and civil engineering accounted for close to 40 per cent of all job cuts with 642 redundancies reported.

Overall, the services sector saw the largest losses with 720 redundancies.

So far in 2008, 13,564 have been made redundant compared to 10,675 at the same point last year.

Northern firm wins Dublin Bus contract

A Northern Irish company has secured an €11 million contract to supply a new fleet of vehicles for Dublin Bus.

Ballymena-based Wright Group will deliver 50 wheelchair-accessible buses, which have also been fitted with CCTV cameras including on-board digital recording to improve passenger and driver safety.

Delivery of the vehicles will begin in November with the full fleet ready for Dublin's streets by next March.

The contract was announced yesterday by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey as part of Dublin Bus's fleet replacement programme.

Dublin Bus carries more than 150 million passengers a year and on average 500,000 people every day across its network.

This is the first time Wright has secured an order from Dublin Bus for double-decker buses. It has previously supplied single-deck and articulated "bendy" buses to Dublin Bus.

Wright last year secured an €11.5 million contract for 48 single-deck buses from Bus Éireann. At the time, it also confirmed it would supply a prototype hybrid electric double-decker bus to Dublin Bus.

- (PA)

Connemara records 624,400 loss

Connemara Mining, the Irish zinc and lead exploration company, made a pretax loss of €624,400 in 2007 - the year it listed on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and made two zinc discoveries in Limerick and Lough Sheelin.

Connemara Mining chairman John Teeling said 2008 would be a busy year for the company and that it had the finance in place to fund its current drilling programmes.

House registration down 48% in May

Irish housing registrations fell 48 per cent in May from a year earlier as builders cut back on building projects in response to weakening demand. New home registrations dropped to 1,249, Dublin-based NCB Stockbrokers said, citing data produced by Homebond, which registers new developments.

In the first five months of 2008, registrations were down 60 per cent from a year ago.

- (Bloomberg)

Changes at the top in NTR

Utility group NTR is planning a number of management changes following recent moves into new businesses.

Steve Cowman, managing director of its Irish waste management operation, Greenstar, is to take over as chief executive of its US solar power acquisition, Stirling Energy Systems (SES).

He will move to SES headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, in southwest US.

Neil Parkinson, currently at the helm of Irish Broadband, will take over at Greenstar.

Mr Parkinson is a former financial officer and chairman of Denis O'Brien's Esat Group, which was sold to BT in 2000.

NTR's chief operating officer, Michael King, is stepping down as an executive director. He will remain as an independent member of the boards of a number of businesses.

Anna Pringle joins from Microsoft as group strategic human resources director.