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Corporate bosses urge Berlin to quickly move on weak economy

German business leaders have today called on Berlin to form a new government swiftly, saying that Europe’s largest economy could not afford to waste any time as companies suffer from high costs, red tape and rising competition from abroad. The country’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc won Sunday’s national election to pave the way for a coalition […]

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Govt seeks to allocate €50m for cross-border projects

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris will seek Cabinet approval to allocate more than €50m towards cross-border projects. The Government has committed to increasing the Shared Island Fund by a further €1 billion up to 2035. Some €510.4m was allocated from the fund between 2020-2024. Up to €57m will now be set aside for […]

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European car sales drop in January as falling combustion engines outweigh EV gains

New car sales in Europe were down by 2.1% in January, as a jump in fully electric and hybrid-electric car registrations in its main markets was not enough to compensate for falling petrol and diesel sales, industry data showed today. Overall sales in France, Italy, Germany and Britain were down from last year, with only […]

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350,000 ‘hidden’ remote working jobs in Ireland – report

There are 350,000 office jobs which could be done remotely according to a new report. The research is from Grow Remote, an organisation that promotes remote working and provides training programmes for individuals and employers. The finding are based on analysis of a new Eurofound “Quality of Life in the EU 2024” survey. The data […]

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Rising business costs biggest challenge for 2025 – IHF

Occupancy rates in Irish hotels fell last year, while forward room bookings for 2025 are €100m lower than they were at this stage 12 months ago. Those are the some of the findings of a survey conducted this month by the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) among 195 of its members. In 2024, its says average […]

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Advertised rents rose by 5.7% in 2024 – Daft.ie report

Advertised rents rose by an average of 5.7% last year, according to the latest report by property listings website Daft.ie. The rate of increase is marginally slower than the 6.8% rise recorded in 2023. The average rent on the open market nationally is €1,956 which is 43% higher than before the outbreak of Covid-19 in […]

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Number of people in employment rises to just under 2.8 million – CSO

The estimated number of people in employment in the fourth quarter of 2024 stood at just under 2.8 million, up 2.6% compared with the previous year, the Central Statistics Office’s latest Labour Force survey reveals. There was a slight quarterly fall in the numbers in employment, which decreased by 18,400, but there was also a […]

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Ireland lacks ambition and leadership on data centres and digital infrastructure – DII

The State needs to take the lead on data centre policy in order to ensure the ongoing strength of the wider digital infrastructure industry here, according to the chair of Digital Infrastructure Ireland. Reacting to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities proposed rules for new data centres in Ireland, announced earlier this week, Maurice […]

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State to attend forum aimed at attracting investment in property sectors

The Irish State is to take part in a major international property conference in France next month in an effort to attract investment into residential construction. Senior officials from the Department of Housing and the Department of Enterprise will be joined by executives from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, the IDA and the Irish property […]

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Annual house price growth slows to 8.7% in December – CSO

Residential property prices grew by 8.7% in the year to December, marking a slowdown from a revised 9.6% growth seen in the previous month, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today. But today’s CSO figures show that average home prices are about €200,000 more expensive than they were just over a decade ago. […]

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