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‘No timeline’ for gender pay gap platform, commercial construction activity rises slightly and the politics of the office whipround

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

Pilita Clark: Not that long ago the office whipround was a reasonably straightforward affair. On hearing that a colleague was going to give birth, wed or leave, someone would buy a card and set off around the building armed with an envelope to collect money for a gift.

Conn Ó Midheach's face
Conn Ó Midheach
Mon Nov 13 2023 - 06:43

There is “no timeline” for when a planned online platform for companies to file gender pay gap reports might be in place, according to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 requires large organisations to report annually on their gender pay gap, as well as on steps they are taking to reduce the gap. Ellen O’Regan reports.

Not that long ago the office whipround was a reasonably straightforward affair. On hearing that a colleague was going to give birth, wed or leave, someone would buy a card and set off around the building armed with an envelope to collect money for a gift. When I say “someone” I mean a woman. I cannot remember ever seeing a man carry out this thankless, non-promotable task, but well done to any who did. Now all has changed, sighs Pilita Clark in her column.

Commercial construction activity grew in October, reversing a three-month streak of contraction in the sector. However, real estate firm BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland has warned that the supply pipeline of new office projects is set to fall away “sharply” from next year. The latest BNP Paribas Real Estate Ireland construction activity index dropped to 47.3 in October, down from 48.6 in September, and signalled a fourth consecutive monthly reduction in construction activity. Ellen O’Regan has the details.

The Little Museum of Dublin overlooking St Stephen’s Green reported a strong rebound in its revenues and surplus last year as the venue reopened fully as Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were fully lifted. Ciarán Hancock reports.

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Sitting around the dinner table during the pandemic, Sophie Leahy could never have predicted what would unfold when she noticed her mother Mary, who has arthritis, struggling to open a bottle of wine with a corkscrew, writes Ellen O’Regan. Inspired by the lack of usable and durable options on the market, the mother-daughter duo reached out to manufacturers with the aim of designing a prototype that was usable, rechargeable and durable, as well as stylish.

Who are these institutional investors in the Irish property market and have they the wherewithal to play their part in funding this much-needed investment in housing? They are neither so-called vultures, nor cuckoos. These terms of abuse are cynically attributed liberally to a variety of private capital firms without distinction, argues Pat Farrell, chief executive of Irish Institutional Property in our weekly opinion slot.

Melior Equity Partners, the Dublin-based private equity firm led by former Irish managers with US investment giant Carlyle Group, has taken a major stake in Monaghan-based NRG Panel (NRG), an installer of solar panels and heat pumps, that is targeting deals of its own. Joe Brennan reports.

More than 200,000 premises across Ireland can now connect to high-speed fibre broadband, as the roll-out of the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) is ahead of target. National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the NBP, will announce in its quarterly update this week that more than a third of the premises targeted by the NBP now have access to high-speed fibre infrastructure. Ellen O’Regan reports.

There’s no simple explanation for Donald Trump or for why his brand of insult politics appeals. What it says about the contemporary United States or politics in general is at best conjecture, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy. To say he is emblematic of a new fractured politics is too obvious to pass for analysis. To paint him as a reaction to globalisation and mass immigration or the embodiment of an America at war with itself is similarly self-evident.

My grandfather died in 2003 when I was five years old. A year or two before he passed away, he gave me a collection of stamps and coins which remained in my parents’ attic as I have never had an interest in stamps or coins. I recently got the collection valued and a value of approximately €25,000 has been put on the collection. We had no idea that the collection had any significant value. I now intend to sell the collection. Would you be able to provide some guidance on the tax implications for me if I sell the collection? Dominic Coyle answers your personal finance questions.

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