Life Scientific wins €3m payout, AIB refunds mortgage customers, and €1m bonuses for ComReg staff

Irish agrochemicals company Life Scientific is awaiting a payout of €3 million in damages from the German government, after winning a series of legal cases there against regulators it had accused of unfairly delaying licences for its products. Mark Paul talks to the company's founder and chief executive Nicola Mitchell.

AIB has begun refunding 5,900 customers who were wrongly denied a tracker mortgage about a decade ago, writes Ciarán Hancock.

Savings by Irish households doubled to €14 billion in the five years prior to the pandemic, Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports. Since Covid-19 hit, however, we've been saving even more, with Central Bank data showing bank deposits rose to €5.3 billion between April and June, compared with just €2 billion for the same period last year. Our willingness to spend our savings will dictate the speed of economic recovery, according to Cantillon.

The European Commission has announced €81.4 billion in loans to help EU member states continue Covid-19 schemes to protect employment, but Ireland is not among the 15 countries to get a slice of the pie; the State has not yet applied for the scheme because of the lengthy delay in forming a Government. Naomi O'Leary reports.

AIB begins issuing refunds to customers denied tracker mortgages

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Number of Irish returning home at highest level since 2007

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How is Ireland’s meat industry handling recent Covid-19 outbreaks?

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The challenge of turning a crisis into an advantage

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Staff at the State-owned communications regulator ComReg shared bonus payments of almost €1 million last year, writes Gordon Deegan.

Irish online auction specialist BidX1 has secured almost €400,000 in investment from Enterprise Ireland, as the company reports a 50 per cent growth in revenue despite effects of the Covid-19 crisis. Charlie Taylor has the story.

Google is offering 60,000 small businesses in Ireland help to recover from the effects of the pandemic, with a package of free training, advertising credits and grants. Ciara O'Brien has the details.

In Personal Finance, Dominic Coyle answers a question from a reader about capital gains on property investments they will be selling for a combined loss, while Joanne Hunt has everything you need to know about life insurance, income protection and critical illness insurance.

Finally, standing in for Laura Slattery in the Media column this week, Bernice Harrison asks, do media embargoes have a place in the new digital world?

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