Property price growth increases to 2.9% in November – CSO
Property price growth picked up on an annual basis for the third successive month in November, increasing by 2.9% after prices rose by 0.8% on a monthly basis, new Central Statistics Office figures show today. Annual price growth had cooled from a recent peak of 15.1% in February 2022 to a near three-year low of […]
Nearly 30,000 housing units held up in planning or legal review – report
Up to 29,000 housing units are being held up in the planning process or in judicial reviews, a new report from construction consultancy Mitchell McDermott has found. That amounts to almost a full year of housing output at current levels of delivery. The report calculates that 20,683 residential units are being delayed by up to […]
ECB to meet on rates, but no changes expected
The ECB’s Governing Council will meet in Frankfurt today to consider whether to make any changes to interest rates. No adjustments are expected though, despite some progress being made in bringing the inflation rate down across Europe. The rate at which prices are rising in the eurozone had been coming down for months, but reaccelerated […]
Professional employment market stabilising
The professional jobs market is showing signs of stabilising with a 30% decline in the number of job seekers and an 18% drop in the number of vacancies in 2023. The figures in the Morgan McKinley Employment Monitor suggest growing stability in job tenures and a lower rate of attrition, likely influenced by retention strategies […]
Enterprise Committee to discuss minimum wages
The Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment will discuss the regulatory and legislative changes required for the transposition of an EU directive on minimum wages. The Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages seeks to reduce working poverty and inequality by improving the adequacy of statutory minimum wages as well as the promotion of collective bargaining. […]
New proposals to keep cash in circulation welcomed
The Chief Executive of Irish Rural Link has welcomed proposed legislation that will keep cash circulating in society as more people turn to digital payments. Under plans being brought to Cabinet today by Minister for Finance Michael McGrath, shops and pharmacies will have to accept cash as part of plans to keep physical money in […]
New remote working rules expected this month
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is expected to complete a new code of practice on the right to request remote working by the end of this month. The code will set out practical guidance for employers and employees when it comes to requesting remote or flexible work. “The WRC intends to finalise the code by […]
€129.5m paid out under film tax relief scheme last year
New movies starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan were some of the big winners in the Section 481 film corporation tax credit scheme for the Irish movie and TV production sector last year. New figures provided by the Revenue Commissioners show that the value of payments made under the Section 481 film corporation tax credit […]
Jump in new homes under construction, vacancy rate dips
The number of new homes under construction has jumped, while the residential vacancy rate has dipped, a new report shows. The data from GeoDirectory, a database of commercial and residential buildings, shows that almost 23,000 new homes were being built across the country last December, up 3.5% on the previous year. After Dublin, building levels […]
Ibec says Government-imposed labour costs are adding €4bn to employer wage bill
Employers group Ibec has written to the Taoiseach to highlight concerns about the rising cost of doing business, and specifically the pace and scale of Government-imposed labour costs. The escalating cumulative costs include the increase in the minimum wage to €12.70, which came into effect on January 1, as well as increases to employer PRSI, […]
Engineering and construction among hardest to fill jobs
New data shows that instrumentation engineers, ad reviewers, and mechanical and electrical project managers are the most difficult jobs to fill. The ‘Hardest to Fill Jobs’ analysis of Irish job posts by jobs site Indeed shows that online moderators, tax consultants and construction specialists are also proving difficult to recruit. Indeed’s analysis examined job postings […]
Majority want stricter regulation of social media algorithm – survey
Almost three-quarters of Irish people believe that social media algorithms, that select the content users see, should be regulated more strictly. The findings are contained in new research from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Uplift which also shows that 82% of those surveyed believe so-called “recommender systems” should be switched off. Recommender […]
Oil prices rise on strong IEA and OPEC demand estimates
Oil prices rose today as the International Energy Agency (IEA) joined producer group OPEC in forecasting strong growth in global oil demand and as cold winter weather disrupted US crude output while the government reported a big weekly draw in crude inventories. Oil traders also worried about geopolitical risks in the Middle East. Pakistan conducted […]
Number of new homes under construction hits record high
Building work began on 32,801 new homes last year, the highest number on record, new data shows. The figure for commencement notices lodged in 2023 compares to 26,957 in 2022, an increase of 21.5%. It follows a strong end to the year, where the number of commencement notices filed in December rose 76% compared to […]
Stamp duty on block-buying homes to be reviewed
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has said that the 10% stamp duty rate, which is applicable to international investors who buy more than ten residential properties, will be reviewed. He was replying in the Dáil to Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty, who said that such investors are block-buying new homes at a rate […]
Taoiseach to meet world leaders and CEOs in Davos
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in Davos for the World Economic Forum, which has so far been dominated by the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Mr Varadkar is expected to meet a number of world leaders and hold bilateral talks with the chief executive officers of several global corporations. He arrived in Davos last […]
Ireland top European country for data fines
Ireland has once again topped a league table of European countries for issuing data fines. The 2024 edition of global law firm DLA Piper’s annual GDPR and Data Breach Survey shows that supervisory authorities across Europe have issued a total of €1.78 billion in fines since 28 January 2023, which is an increase of 14.1% […]
Wage growth in Ireland eases to 3.7%
Wage growth in Ireland slowed at the end of 2023 and has dropped to 3.7% year-on-year, according to a new report from jobs site Indeed and the Central Bank of Ireland. The research shows that the wage growth rate in Ireland is below the 3.8% recorded across the euro area and the slowest since April […]