Author: Practicenet

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has completed an auction of €1bn of the benchmark Irish Government bonds this morning. The NTMA sold €550m of bonds at a yield of 0.689pc which will mature in 2026, and €450m worth of bonds with a yield of 1.648pc which will mature in 2037. With the completion of […]

Some Irish exporting sectors have seen their dependence on the UK market increase since the turn of the millennium, even though the exports share overall to the UK has been declining. A new paper from the Department of Finance shows the extent to which some sectors are vulnerable to Brexit. The importance of the UK […]

There has been a dramatic drop in the cost of motor insurance. New figures show there was a plunge of 14pc in the cost of cover in the last year, the biggest drop since the insurance crisis hit. Central Statistics Office (CSO) inflation figures show the cost of motor insurance was broadly steady in the month […]

The EU is to publish “guiding principles” for upcoming Brexit talks on Ireland and Northern Ireland today. The paper will seek to drive home the message that the “onus” is on the UK to provide solutions to Brexit-induced problems on the island of Ireland. It will also try to tackle growing concerns that the UK […]

A number of rural towns are to become Ireland’s fastest fibre broadband hotspots in the next two years, outgunning Dublin, Cork, Limerick and other Irish cities. A new joint venture between telecoms firm Enet and energy company SSE is to connect 115,000 homes and businesses to fibre broadband that delivers speeds of 1,000Mbs, dwarfing existing […]

So-called virtual currency bitcoin tumbled the most since July after China’s central bank said initial coin offerings are illegal and asked all related fundraising activity to be halted immediately – issuing the strongest regulatory challenge so far to the burgeoning market for digital token sales. The People’s Bank of China said yesterday that it had […]

There is a “realistic possibility” that the economy will start to overheat in the coming years if the strong growth rates continue, the state’s budgetary watchdog has warned. It comes as the latest Exchequer data shows that tax revenues in August totalled €2.66bn – about €209m below expectations at this stage of the year, highlighting […]

As much as €3bn could be lost to the Irish Exchequer as low-emission vehicles become the norm by 2030, according to industry experts. Huge amounts of revenue used to fund essential services are generated by vehicle registration tax, motor tax and fuel tax and could largely disappear as the petrol engine is slowly consigned to […]

Households across Ireland have become somewhat accustomed to mostly small but incremental increases in the cost of electricity over the last few years, but get quite a shock with the arrival of your next bill. That’s because the energy regulator has approved a massive 30pc hike in the ‘green’ levy on domestic energy bills that […]

Paddy Cosgrave’s Web Summit is to hire 40 people in the next six months, bringing the company’s total employment to 200. The company has also announced former US vice president Al Gore and former French president Francois Hollande as headline speakers for the Lisbon-based event in November. European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is already confirmed […]