News

House hunters have €27,000 less spending power than a year ago, according to daftmortgages.ie. The website analysed the buying plans of over 170,000 people preparing for a mortgage and it found that the typical mortgage seeker now has €11,000 (15%) less savings to put towards a deposit than mortgage seekers in the same position a […]

Dublin Port volumes recovered strongly in the first half of 2022 with growth of 10.1% to 18.6 million tonnes. In trading figures out today, it said container and trailer volumes are now less than 1% behind the record pre‑pandemic and pre-Brexit levels of 2019. The number of ship arrivals increased by 150 to 3,694 versus […]

Google, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices have partnered to launch a new digital training scheme for SMEs. The ‘You’re the Business’ scheme provides online training and resources for all Irish SMEs to help them get online, to grow their digital footprint and expand internationally. A recent study from Google, developed in partnership with […]

Iarnród Éireann will lodge plans this week for the extension of the electrified DART network from the Connolly/Spencer Dock area to west of Maynooth and on to the M3 Parkway in Co Meath. The company said it will deliver a more sustainable transport option for a number of communities, such as Maynooth, Leixlip and Castleknock. […]

A plan to apply stringent greenhouse gas emission reduction targets on different parts of the economy will not go to Cabinet next week, as had been planned. Instead, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan will continue to engage with his Cabinet colleagues on how that burden should be shared – with agricultural emissions the most controversial issue. […]

National Lottery ticket sales exceeded €1 billion last year, up 14.7% on the previous year, according to operator Premier Lotteries Ireland full year results for 2021. For the sixth consecutive year, growth was recorded in the money raised for good causes, which amounted to €304 million euro last year. The company said that approximately 90% […]

The euro advanced against the dollar after Russia resumed gas supplies to Europe and the European Central Bank surprised markets with a 0.5 percentage-point rate hike. The advance by the single currency came on a mixed day for European stocks but a good session on Wall Street, where equities advanced for a third straight day. […]

The state agency established to help fund the delivery of new homes grew loan approvals to €1.16bn at the end of June 2022. That was an increase of 38% on the €835 million approved by the end of 2021. It was Home Building Finance Ireland’s busiest ever six-month period based on loan approvals. HBFI was […]

The Government has announced funding of €5 million over five years for a new construction technology centre, which will accelerate research and innovation within the construction sector. The centre will be based at NUI Galway, and the consortium includes Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and University College Cork working with the Irish Green Building […]

Consumer sentiment has dropped to a 21-month low this month on broad based concerns about the economy. In particular the KBC Bank Ireland consumer sentiment index found consumers were worried about severe financial pressures around their household finances. Overall the index fell from 57.7 in June to 53.7 in July, despite a surprise 2.2 point […]