News

HUNDREDS of homeowners have been left without insurance cover if their homes develop structural defects following the failure of a Danish insurer. Alpha Insurance filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. It had 12,000 customers here. Last week 50,000 drivers had to get alternative insurance cover when another Danish insurer, Qudos, went into liquidation. Now it […]

THE Government plans to borrow between €14bn and €18bn next year, to repay outstanding debt as it falls due. The plans outlined by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) are in line with the amount raised this year on the bond markets. The Government is forecasting a balanced budget next year, meaning it will not […]

More than 1,300 disclosures made of assets held in the UK. The Revenue Commissioners took a €213m tax haul last year as a result of a crackdown on defaulters that was backed by the recruitment of extra staff. And €87.6m of the tax was paid by people on assets held across the world, including the […]

A plunge in shares has wiped €4bn off the value of the State’s stake in bailed-out banks this year. The massive drop in value raises a serious question mark over the Government’s policy of holding on to the bank stakes for so long. Shares in AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB have been battered, […]

Irish workers face an almost 50pc chance their job will be automated in little more than a decade. The stark warning that robots and other forms of automation may replace some workers came as the Government announced projects which will share €75m in funding as part of a bid to secure future jobs. Business Minister […]

The paltry fine of €23,000 slapped on Irish Nationwide Building Society’s one-time head of commercial lending, Tom McMenamin, bears no relationship to the scale of losses at the now bust lender. Taxpayers sank €5.4bn into INBS, which was nationalised in 2010 during the depths of the crisis, and will claw back little or nothing of […]

Government proposals that could see the income tax relief on pensions cut would be calamitous for middle earners, a leading investment company has warned. Halving the reliefs would lead to a mass exodus of middle-income earners from retirement schemes, Standard Life warned. The pensions provider said reducing tax relief will mean it costs higher-rate taxpayers […]

For all his promises to “promote fairness” in his 2019 Budget, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe’s measures will see some sections of society falling further behind, with pensioners the largest single group to see their position eroded, according to a new study. The Economic and Social Research Institute assessed the impact of the budget changes compared […]

Russian banks are among the heaviest users of Irish special-purpose entities (SPE), a class of unregulated structure used to raise funds. Securitisations – which bundle masses of mortgages, car loans, consumer or business loans into structures that can be borrowed against by banks and others – have become relatively well known since the financial crisis. […]

Almost one in two people are concerned that they are financially unprepared for retirement, according to a savings and investment index from the Bank of Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute. The Retirement Optimism reading dropped sharply to 99 in November from 105 in September. It is part of an overall Savings and […]