News

The number of people approved for a mortgage surged by a third last month, driven largely by first-time buyers. And potential buyers are getting approved for higher amounts of borrowings, according to the figures from the Banking and Payments Federation. The figures imply property prices will keep rising, economists said. A total of 4,124 want-to-be […]

Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned of possible “capacity constraints” in the labour market if the unemployment numbers continue to drop at the expected rate. While the Government doesn’t expect a situation to arise where there won’t be enough workers to fill available jobs, Mr Donohoe said the scenario is something ministers would have to “reflect […]

Property owners could be offered local authority loans to bring vacant homes back into use and help tackle the housing crisis. It is understood the Government is considering implementing a local authority loan scheme to help encourage owners to sell or rent vacant properties after it emerged that up to 80,000 empty units may be […]

The European Commission has fined Google €2.42bn for abusing its dominant market position by giving illegal advantage in search results to its own comparison shopping service. The fine is the biggest ever handed down by European competition authorities for so-called ant-trust or market abuse. It is the latest in a string of findings that have […]

AIB’s listing on the main securities market has provided the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) with the largest IPO in Europe in 2017. AIB’s admission to a primary listing on the main securities market follows the sale of a 25pc stake in the group by the Minister for Finance, raising approximately €3bn for the State from […]

A new financial crisis is brewing in the emerging economies and it could hit “with a vengeance”, an influential group of central bankers has warned. Emerging markets such as China are showing the same signs that their economies are overheating as the US and the UK demonstrated before the financial crisis of 2007-08, according to […]

We threw it away. Measures introduced two-and-a-half years ago by the Central Bank to curb runaway property inflation were only ever a temporary stop-gap. The aim was to control prices to buy time to enable the State to fast-track housing development in a market which is now seeing the worst supply levels in a lifetime. […]

Competitiveness concerns in Dublin, allied with the Brexit risk to rural Ireland, present the greatest risk to the economic outlook, according to a report published this morning. The Economic Eye Summer Forecast from financial services firm EY predicts economic growth across the island to be at 2.4pc until the end of the decade, with 91,000 […]

Mortgages are squeezing out cash buyers in large numbers for the first time since the downturn, helping drive house price rises to boom-time levels across swathes of the country. Property prices in at least eight counties are now rising faster than during the boom years, as competition for homes continues to heat up. During the […]

Insurance is one of life’s necessary evils with one-way traffic when it comes to premiums. Now the heads of the two biggest health insurers warn that costs could double over the next decade. Today’s average premium of €1,200 will increase to over €2,400 at the same time as cover for procedures is cut in an […]