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Merrion Hotel and staff housing, credit unions lending, and Christmas gifts with a financial theme

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

An exterior shot of the Merrion Hotel in Dublin 2. The group is looking at building accommodation close to the five-star property to house staff. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times

Ciarán Hancock's face
Ciarán Hancock
Tue Dec 20 2022 - 06:29

The five-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin 2 is looking at building accommodation for staff close to the building, against a backdrop of soaring rents and constrained supply that are making it increasingly difficult for some of its employees to afford to live in the city. Ciarán Hancock has the details.

Still scratching your head trying to come up with an inspired gift for your nearest and dearest as Christmas Day looms? In our personal finance feature, Fiona Reddan looks at some options that might provide longer-term financial benefits to the recipients.

If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your pocket try signing up to On the Money, the new weekly newsletter from our personal finance team for Irish Times subscribers. You can read the latest edition of the newsletter here.

Credit unions are on track to be the main lenders to households and small businesses in up to 50 towns across the State within five years, according to industry body CUDA, as the Government pushes new legislation through the Oireachtas aimed at supporting the movement. Joe Brennan reports.

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Homeowners could have saved up to €2,324 on their electricity bills and €1,266 on gas by switching to the best available discount rate each year over the four years to 2021, according to a report from the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities. Dominic Coyle goes through its findings.

The Ireland Funds America charity provided philanthropic grants worth $17.7 million (€16.7 million) to more than 300 Irish-based organisations last year, the group’s latest accounts show. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports on its filings.

In our second personal finance Q&A of the week, a reader who was involved in arranging for a lady with dementia to access a nursing home under the Fair Deal scheme wonders what will happen to her home when she and her brother, who is living in the property, die. Dominic Coyle offers a view.

From warm glows to gangrene, a glut of TV shows entertained in 2022 while some others disappeared from view. Laura Slattery explains all in her media and marketing column.

Is Elon Musk really willing to step down as Twitter CEO following the results of his latest poll? Cantillon thinks it unlikely and, besides, who would replace him?

In Me & My Money, Laoise Leahy, founder of By Leahy Jewellery in 2019, recalls how she started the business with her own savings and has been “bootstrapping” it ever since.

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