PLANET BUSINESS

Laura Slatteryperuses the week in business

THE NUMBERS

10

- percentage of consumers who told Hibernian Life Pensions that holding out for a Lotto win - or "gambling their golden years on an 8 million to one long shot" as Hibernian put it - was a "practical" way to fund their retirement.

EUR35,000

- the going rate for a three-year career break as offered to staff of Permanent TSB who would otherwise be sitting out the downturn in the office, twiddling their thumbs. Who said the banking crisis was a bad thing?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 1:

'You don't cancel Christmas just because a couple of builders have a problem.'

- Dublin City Business Association chief executive Tom Coffey is looking to consumers to keep the retailers' tills ringing.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2

'The lenders are not going to let the borrowers decide the rules of the game.'

- Labour peer Lord Desai, economist by trade, sums up what he believes is flawed thinking behind British and French attempts to dictate the nature of global economic co-ordination, when it's China that holds all the cards .

GOOD WEEK

Flu victims 

Feeling a bit off colour? Thinking a duvet day might be coming on? Google the phrase "flu symptoms" and not only could you find the justification you need for that well-earned sickie, but you could help the search engine giants track the spread of influenza about 10 days' faster than public health disease prevention specialists. A new Google Flu Trends service will monitor search terms as an early warning system for flu outbreaks first in the US and later across the globe.

Philip Green  

The Topshop owner and close personal friend of Kate Moss has snapped up a bargain, buying a 28 per cent stake in menswear chain Moss Bros from crunch-stricken Icelandic retail investment firm Baugur. The "special situation deal" extends the clothing entrepreneur's control of the British high street.

BAD WEEK

Rosanna Davison/Ryanair

Ryanair's charity trolley dolly calendar doesn't feature any Irish cabin crew, Rosanna Davison has noted, prompting the airline's (presumably tongue-in-cheek) publicity machine to accuse her of making "narrow-minded" comments that "bordered on racism and demonstrated an elitist attitude against Ryanair's international cabin crew". But will the ex-Miss World continue her fight for the right of Irish cabin crew to be photographed reclining on the wing of an airplane wearing nothing but a couple of seatbelts? Is Ryanair really taking the high moral ground while seeking applications for a Miss February? And does anyone emerge from this spat with dignity?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 3

" We changed our mobile phone numbers once a week, so no one could figure out my location."

- It was no fun being married to a Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich's ex-wife Irina tells the Russian edition of OK!magazine.