Revenue clamps down on Airbnb hosts, State building slows and the semantics of Brexit

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from ‘The Irish Times’ business desk

IDA Ireland is looking to position the State as a leading centre for blockchain, the much-hyped technology that is expected to have a huge impact on the way businesses across multiple sectors operate.

Revenue is cracking down on homeowners who let rooms through accommodation website Airbnb, writes Barry O'Halloran. Last year an estimated 23,000 people in the Republic earned €115 million from letting all or part of their homes through Airbnb, which began supplying Revenue with information on Irish hosts'income in 2015.

State infrastructure building slowed last month as construction of homes and offices rocketed ahead, a survey published on Monday shows. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index shows that commercial and house building drove further expansion in the industry last month. Barry O'Halloran reports.

IDA Ireland is looking to position the State as a leading centre for blockchain, the much-hyped technology that is expected to have a huge impact on the way businesses across multiple sectors operate. Charlie Taylor has the details.

Guaranteed Irish has begun a push to triple its membership by the end of 2020 as part of moves to reinvent itself beyond its beginnings in the 1970s and 1980s, writes Laura Slattery. The organisation, which has more than 300 members following a relaunch last year, is targeting a membership of 500 from all sectors of the Irish economy by the end of 2018 and hopes to reach the 1,000 mark in another two years.

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New research obtained by The Irish Times suggests about 120,000 people in Ireland own a cryptocurrency, a 300 per cent increase in the last four years.The study also suggests that more than 180,000 people have at some stage in recent years traded or used Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency. Mark Paul reports.

There were more shoppers on the North's last month than there had been at any other time in the last 12 months, new retail figures show, writes Francess McDonnell. Consumers flocked back to the high street during, delivering a 2.2 per cent jump in footfall figures.

More than eight out of 10 food and drinkcompanies fear Brexit's impact but are better prepared for the UK's departure from the EU than other businesses, employers' group Ibec says, writes Barry O'Halloran.

'Brexit means Brexit' never meant anything at all; empty of any content whatsoever, most of us now wonder whether the UK prime minister herself had any idea about what her own words might have meant, writes columnist Chris Johns

Don't complain. Don't name-drop. Don't babble on your phone too much. Try to be likeable. Listen and wait for people to stop talking. Take special care at any event involving drinking. Pilita Clark has some advice for office interns.

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Conn Ó Midheach

Conn Ó Midheach

Conn O Midheach is Assistant Business Editor - Digital of The Irish Times