No new Dublin office for Google, Ireland officially in recession, and 1.4m homes needed by 2050

Google has walked away from a plan to rent office space in Dublin's docklands for 2,000 workers, shelving one of the city's biggest property deals in recent years. Its decision not to proceed with the leasing at the Sorting Office development will be keenly watched as investors weigh the impact of coronavirus on the city.

It's official: Ireland is in recession once again, as figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office show the country's economic activity slipped into the red for the second quarter in a row. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports, while Cantillon analyses the CSO figures, recent retail statistics, and the fate of the Irish hotels sector.

Permanent TSB is making refunds of legal costs, averaging €2,400, to almost 400 borrowers who had been in arrears in the past, following a review of legacy cases. Joe Brennan has the details, plus news that the lender's director of operations Shane O'Sullivan, the internal runner-up in the bank's recent search for a new chief executive, has announced he is leaving the company.

An additional 1.4 million homes need to be built in the State over the next 30 years – equivalent to 49,000 units a year – to cope with the likely increase in population, economist Ronan Lyons has told the annual conference of the Dublin Economics Workshop. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has more.

Google's withdrawal from Dublin office deal cast doubts on sector

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Irish investors paid bribe for gas deal, says Nigerian official

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European equities climb as markets ignore US tech woes

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Expert says State needs to build 1.4m extra homes by 2050 to meet demand

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Stepstone Mortgages, the boom-time Irish subprime mortgage lender, has officially gone into liquidation after selling its loans and making large payments to trustees managing the wind-up of its failed main backer, Lehman Brothers. Joe Brennan reports.

In personal finance, Joanne Hunt has everything you need to know about your winter bills while working from home - how they might increase, tips for better energy usage, and what you might be able to claim back in tax relief (warning: it's not very much). Dominic Coyle answers a question from a reader left confused and out of pocket due to cancelled and rescheduled flights in recent months.

And in her Media & Marketing column this week, Laura Slattery discusses the Dettol ad that went viral in the UK for all the wrong reasons.

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