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Ryanair half-year profits hit €2.18bn, Doyle hotel’s profits jump, and drugs R&D in Europe

The best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

The Westbury Hotel in Dublin. It's parent company the Doyle Collection saw profits and revenues rebound last year.

Ciarán Hancock's face
Ciarán Hancock
Mon Nov 6 2023 - 06:58

Profits at Ryanair Holdings rose 59 per cent to €2.18 billion in the six months ended September 30th, the first half of the airline’s financial year. The Irish airline grew passengers 11 per cent to 105.4 million during the six-month period, boosting revenues by 30 per cent to €6.62 billion. Barry O’Halloran reports

The Doyle Collection hotel group recorded a strong bounce back last year with its turnover and profits almost trebling following “steady growth” in tourism and leisure activity, and corporate business. Ciarán Hancock has the details.

New EU rules on drug development will see Europe lose out on the research and development of new medicines, a report commissioned by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations notes. Dominic Coyle reports.

New research shows that many workers will accept lower pay to work for environmentally sustainable firms, writes FT columnist Pilita Clark.

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Is Ireland’s technical recession likely to morph into a real one? Our economics correspondent Eoin Burke-Kennedy gives his view.

In our first personal finance Q&A of the week, a reader wonders if now is the right time to switch out of their tracker and fix their mortgage for a long time. Dominic Coyle offers some guidance. If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.

In our Opinion piece, energy entrepreneur Eddie O’Connor argues that we need a Europe-wide power grid stretching from Donegal to Budapest and from Helsinki to Palermo to help decarbonise the continent’s electricity system.

In Me & My Money, Irish singer and performer Leah Barniville notes that “Google says my net worth is €22.5m but I’m not quite sure which bank account that’s in”. She was speaking with Tony Clayton-Lea.

Newspaper publishers in the Republic are expected to see a pickup in revenues from digital media over the next five years, according to a new PwC Ireland study, but the increase will not be enough to outweigh the expected decline in print sales. Ian Curran has the details.

Italy is hoping to boost its exports to Ireland of pasta, tomatoes, wine, cheese to about €500 million, according to its ambassador Ruggero Corrias. Ciarán Hancock has the details.

Irish tourists travelling outside the euro zone still have a preference for cash over cards, a survey by Kerry-based financial services group Fexco has found. Ian Curran reports.

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