Author: Practicenet

A new strategy aimed at promoting Ireland as a whiskey tourism destination will be unveiled this week. The campaign, which has national and local government support, is targeting massive tourism growth, building on the 653,277 tourists who visit an Irish whiskey distillery each year and increasing this figure to 1.9m by 2025. The Irish Whiskey […]

When a recovery begins, and as consumers loosen their personal purse strings, companies tend to have existing employees work extra hours and overtime rather than taking on new people. That is because the cost invested in the hiring and training of new staff could be lost if the upturn peters out and the newly employed […]

A new €70m funding package that will allow small Irish businesses to borrow specialist equipment and vehicles at a lower cost has been announced. SMEs can avail of a 1.57pc discount for specialist machinery as part of the scheme from the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) and FEXCO Asset Finance. The product offering from […]

John and Patrick Collison, the Limerick brothers that set up micro-payments firm Stripe, have become Ireland’s youngest billionaires after their latest funding round, which raised $150m at a $9bn valuation.  The pair own just under 30pc of the business and according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index the net worth of their stake in the firm […]

Experts in complex international tax avoidance schemes are to be recruited by the Revenue Commissioners to inspect the books of big multinationals based here. The new hires will carry out transfer pricing audits on large corporate firms, “compliance interventions” and manage the roll-out of country-by-country reporting. They’ll also be asked to draw up strategies to […]

Cyber Monday – the busiest online sales day of the year – is predicted to boost Irish retailers’ coffers to the tune of €53m. The annual online sales splurge that traditionally takes place tomorrow is the online equivalent of Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year in the US. As Irish consumers grow […]

Irish investors in their early 60s who have yet to retire could be among the most vulnerable to Brexit and any uncertainty in financial markets triggered by the election of Donald Trump. Some of the largest bond holders include private pension holders who are nearing retirement. These people also typically have a good portion of […]

The British government has cut its growth forecast for next year in the wake of the Brexit vote, which could have a small knock-on effect on Ireland’s growth prospects. The UK economy is now expected to grow by 1.4pc next year – down from the previous 2.2pc forecast. The Finance Department has stated that a […]

Tomorrow is ‘Black Friday’, when big retailers here offer up what are advertised as big savings on tech products. Some of it is very, very iffy. That 40pc saving being quoted on a telly, laptop or camera? Try 10pc. Or 0pc. For example, Harvey Norman is selling Sony’s RX100 camera in a “Black Friday” deal for €429, […]

New buyers will end up with more money; Lane says rules were too complicated. The Central Bank has made a dramatic change to its mortgage lending rules, in a move that is expected to lead to a surge in home building. However, there are also fears that the loosening of the lending limits will lead to […]