The Government is said to be planning a significant once-off financial support for cash-strapped businesses in the Budget 2024. The scheme, which is being championed by Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney, will be aimed at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) hit by rising energy costs, inflation and higher taxes. It is also seen as compensation for the expected removal of the reduced rate of VAT in hospitality and the likely hike in the minimum wage next year. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.
Childcare fees should be made fully tax deductible in the upcoming budget, according to just more than a third of people surveyed on the issue of childcare costs, reports Dominic Coyle. Only 6 per cent of 2,000 taxpayers taking part in the pre-budget survey by tax advisers, Taxback, felt it was not the Government’s job to get involved in addressing rising costs in the sector.
We all have busy lives, and they seem to just be getting busier. Schedules to follow, events to attend, lists to work through. But there are digital tools to help you get yourself in order, regardless of whether you need help organising your home life, work or education, writes Ciara O’Brien. For many people, the apps that are already built in to your phone will be enough to keep things running smoothly. But there is software out there that will offer more features and extras – some free, some for a fee – that can keep you on top of things.
The “slow delivery of infrastructure” is now the chief threat to Ireland’s competitive position but the Government is constrained from addressing it by a pronounced shortage of labour in the economy, the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council has warned. In it annual “competitiveness challenge” report, the agency said “achieving a significant expansion” in areas such as housing, energy and water infrastructure would “require labour which is not in immediate supply”. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details
This is not a great year to be in the business of insuring satellites and rockets, writes Peggy Hollinger. In recent months, the California-based Viasat has announced malfunctions in two of its most eagerly anticipated satellites: Viasat-3, which was to provide services to the Americas; and Inmarsat-6 F2, part of a fleet billed as “the world’s most technologically advanced commercial communications satellites ever launched”.
In their spare time, Kate Williams and Nathan Cruz Coulson are keen mobile gamers. In 2022 they turned their hobby into a business when they set up Bold Donut, which uses gaming to encourage people to do their bit for the planet. Olive Keogh met the innovative duo.
Are the EU and China edging towards a trade war?
If you wanted to sum up the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra in one word it would be “giant”. Although Samsung’s top-end tablet is thin and light, it comes with a frankly huge 14.6-inch display that makes everything else seem tiny in comparison. What can you do with a tablet this size? Lots of things, as long as you don’t mind carrying it around. Ciara O’Brien finds out.
Instead of just talking about the housing crisis, many domestic businesses, particularly in the high-end hotel sector where workers have been thin on the ground since Covid, are rolling up their sleeves, writes Cantillon This week, the Merrion Hotel in Dublin confirmed it is progressing plans to build staff quarters in a building it owns around the corner from its Dublin 2 premises.
Cantillon also says that as the Irish stock exchange grapples with an exodus of its biggest corporate beasts (CRH left last week, Smurfit Kappa is the departure lounge and Flutter Entertainment is likely to follow), the last company to float on the market has just made its pitch harder to find future stars. HealthBeacon, a medtech company, raised €25 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in December 2021 in a deal that valued it at €98.4 million. The market capitalisation has been in decline ever since.
One of Dublin’s leading specialists in period joinery, Advance Joinery based in the Ballymun Industrial Estate, has been put up for sale as brothers Ivan and Carl Crowe, hang up their tools after nearly 40 years in business, writes Deirdre McQuillan. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years and I have had enough; the effect of heavy lifting wears the body out. It’s not physically possible any more,” said Carl (65). “It is also hard to get apprentices because young lads these days don’t want to do physical work and apprentice rates are only €250 a week.”
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