Electric Ireland fraud alert, Aryzta board row and meet Meta’s Irish boss

We start the day with a concerning story from Electric Ireland, which has written to some 8,000 customers to inform them that an employee apparently earned unauthorised access to their accounts. Unlike other breaches companies are often involved in, this appears to have been deliberate rather than a simple error and the Gardai are now involved. Ellen O’Regan reports.

If you’re waiting for the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates sooner rather than later, you may have to keep waiting for a while yet. Central Bank of Ireland governor Gabriel Makhlouf, who also sits on the ECB committee that sets interest rates, told a conference on Wednesday it is “far, far too early” to think about cutting, or even that the bank may be finished hiking. Joe Brennan has the details.

Joe also reports on a row at the top of a company that has seen its share of disputes in recent years. Two directors at Cuisine de France owner Aryzta, including its leading Irish director Gordon Hardie, have quit the board amid concerns about the fact that CEO Urs Jordi continues to also hold the role of chairman.

In technology, Ciara O’Brien meets Meta Ireland boss Anne O’Leary and discusses the Facebook owner’s waves of job cuts, how it deals with the Data Protection Commission and what it is doing to stop disinformation on its various platforms.

The outlook for interest rate cuts is changing - so should Irish borrowers be worried?

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Extend EV grant to second-hand purchases, says PwC

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Card data suggests it’s not all doom and gloom in the hospitality sector

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Latest euro zone inflation figures suggest ECB will move slowly on rates

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Inflation has been a huge issue for us all in recent years, and still remains well above central bankers 2 per cent target rate. Now, Barry O’Halloran reports that a slew of renewable energy developments awarded in 2020, just before inflation started to increase, may be shelved as they are no longer economically viable.

Despite the challenge of higher interest rates thanks to the inflation fight, people are still borrowing to buy cars. Ellen reports on a surge in the value of such loans, as buyers flock to electric vehicles and more expensive cars overall.

Marks & Spencer didn’t specifically publish how its Irish business is doing when it announced half year results on Wednesday, but an investor presentation implies both revenue and operating profit at its operation in the Republic jumped in the first six months of its fiscal year.

The Government appears to have missed its target for securing vacant homes for social housing, with little more than 900 acquired since 2017 against a target of 1,600. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

It’s a big day at the European Court of Justice, where the Government, Apple and the European Commission are set to learn the bloc’s top court’s ruling on whether the tech giant really does owe Ireland billions in back taxes. Joe will be covering the story today, and here explains what exactly is at stake.

Where next for Ryan Tubridy? Cantillon looks at what his next move may be, and also assesses Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s trip to China, unhappily coinciding with the country banning Irish beef imports after a case of BSE was discovered here.

Finally, in Innovation, Olive Keogh meets the company hoping to end what it calls the drain of talented women giving up their careers due to fertility issues, while Elon Musk’s Tesla tries to shake up the assembly line.

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