State selling bank shares; green tax is falling; and rare good news for the motor industry

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

Bank of Ireland reported a better-than-expected first-half profit on Tuesday as the State confirmed that it had sold almost 1 per cent of the bank in the stock market in recent weeks. Shares jumped close to 8 per cent on the news, presumably opening the door to further sales of stock by the Government. Joe Brennan reports the figures and analyses what it means for the bank and the Government.

Regulators will cut the green energy tax on families and employers by over a third – but only because rising energy prices mean they don't need as much to meet guaranteed rates to renewable suppliers. Barry O'Halloran explains what it will mean.

The number of workers in the homecare industry needs to rise by 60 per cent over the next 20 years to keep pace with the needs of an ageing population, provider Home Instead said as it announced plans to recruit 1,000 new carers. Mark Paul reports.

Ardagh, Paul Coulson's glass and metal packaging group, said a cyberattack in May cost it €28.6 million. The news came as it reported a 17 per cent jump in revenues and a 20 per cent jump in profits in the first half of the year amid rising demand for sustainable packaging and days ahead of the spin-out flotation of its drinks cans business in New York, writes Joe Brennan

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The August bank holiday weekend is traditionally the busiest of the year for Irish airports but not this year. Figures from Eurocontrol show that 394 flights either landed or departed Irish airports on bank holiday Monday - just one more than on the day the non-essential travel ban was first lifted, writes Barry O'Halloran

Modular construction is getting cheaper and that makes it a viable option for faster, cleaner homebuilding – at least in large homogenous schemes – an executive with the Construction Industry Federation says. However, Martin Searson tells Barry O'Halloran why it still won't work for apartments.

New car registrations for the month of July recovered from a lockdown dip last year and even rose above pre-pandemic levels of 2019, new figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry show. Colin Gleeson looks at the numbers.

And used car prices rose by 40 per cent in the last 12 months, according to a new report compiled by economist Tom Gillespie. Looking at 10 years of listings on online site, DoneDeal, he showed that, after controlling for mileage, age, and other factors, used car prices held up so strongly during the pandemic that they offset the traditional depreciation. But, writes motoring editor Michael McAleer, the devil is in the detail.

A consortium of investors, including John Collison, the cofounder of payments group Stripe, have bought a majority stake in Weston Airport, which straddles the border between Dublin and Kildare.

Finally, as Ireland emerges from a decade that has seen three generational crises – the financial crash, Brexit and a global pandemic – Ibec's Danny McCoy argues that Government must back business and retain our competitiveness if the economy is going to achieve the growth necessary to deliver on its ambitious plans for public capital investment.

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Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle is Deputy Business Editor of The Irish Times