News

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 […]

Ireland’s second annual cyber security conference, Dublin Information Sec 2017, will take place on Wednesday, November 1, at the RDS. It will explore cyber security trends and threats facing business in Ireland and the technologies to protect against them. It will be sponsored by Eir Business, a Cisco Gold Partner. Specialists in the industry will […]

Sterling weakened to beyond 93 pence against the euro yesterday – the highest level since 2009 – heaping yet further pressure on businesses here selling into the UK market. The slide, however, also makes imports cheaper. The euro also crossed the $1.20 mark for the first time since the start of 2015 as investors fled […]

Enterprise Ireland will launch a €750,000 funding competition for early stage companies in manufacturing and internationally traded services. The competition will open on 13 September. This is Enterprise Ireland’s seventh competitive start fund in 2017 and is open to all sectors with a focus on agricultural, manufacturing, life sciences and renewables subsectors. Up to 15 […]

More than one-third of property buyers in the 25 to 45 age group are moving house on the grounds of securing proximity to a target school or to locate in its catchment area, it can be revealed. Agents with both of Ireland’s largest estate agency networks said that increased pressure on school places through the […]