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Hotels and refugees, Irish Distillers carbon-neutral plan, and alleged fraud at Dr Quirkey’s

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Dr Quirkeys Good Time Emporium on Dublins O'Connell Street, where an alleged fraud took place between 2018 and 2019. Photograph: Alan Betson / THE IRISH TIMES

Ciarán Hancock's face
Ciarán Hancock
Mon Jun 13 2022 - 06:18

About 8,500 hotel rooms (14 per cent of the sector’s capacity) are currently booked by the Government to house refugees, exacerbating a supply crisis in the sector that has caused room rates to increase significantly in recent months, leading to significant political and public anger. Mark Paul reports

Jameson whiskey maker Irish Distillers is to invest €50 million in its Midleton Distillery over the next four years to deliver a carbon-neutral operation by the end of 2026 — one of the most ambitious decarbonisation targets adopted by an Irish manufacturing company. Kevin O’Sullivan has the details.

An alleged €2 million fraud has been uncovered at Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, according to accounts just filed by the operating company. Gordon Deegan reports.

The number of new houses built is set to increase over coming years but will still fall short of the Government’s targets, according to predictions published by EY’s economic advisory arm, writes Mark Paul.

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The new wave of tech work is too baffling for too many people, argues FT columnist Pilita Clark.

Professional services firm PwC has called for greater clarity on new rules that oblige larger companies to report and publicly explain their gender pay gap. Its own gender pay gap has reduced to 1 per cent over the past four years, the firm says. Mark Paul reports.

Are property funds turning us into a nation of renters? Eoin Burke-Kennedy ponders this point in his weekly column.

In Q&A, a reader and his wife have been offered a €100,000 loan from his parents that they might use to renovate their house, and are wondering about the tax implications. Dominic Coyle offers some guidance.

In our Opinion piece, Fergal O’Brien of employers group Ibec notes how we’ve bucked the trend in terms of our jobs growth over the past two years but says investment is needed to upskill people if this trend is to continue.

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