McGrath warns over Sinn Féin’s tax policies, hitting housing targets and a Mac love affair

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has warned that Sinn Féin’s tax policies would damage the economy by making the State “less attractive for business leaders”. Speaking on the sidelines of the world Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Mr McGrath said Sinn Féin proposals to impose a 3 per cent “solidarity tax” on incomes above €140,000 could jeopardise foreign direct investment (FDI), resulting in fewer jobs. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports

The Government will struggle to hit this year’s target of building 33,450 new homes without extra supports for builders and buyers, experts warn. Multinational consulting engineers Aecom agree with most estimates that new home building in the Republic topped the Government’s 29,000 target, in a report published on Thursday. Barry O’Halloran has the details.

I still have my first Mac, a nearly 30 year old Mac SE with a double disk drive (a hard-drive was an external add-on that cost too much). The entire operating system sat on a single floppy disk that went in one drive. I didn’t choose that Mac; it was given to me, then a user of DOS (Windows’ predecessor). I recall being surprised at the Mac’s – yes – personality. And its charm. The Mac looked and felt like the future, writes Karlin Lillington and I still love it to this day.

Artificial intelligence was the main topic at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, writes Ciara O’Brien. After a year when generative AI hit the headlines, the expectation was that the chatty artificial intelligence would cross over into the technology for the coming year. But while AI was front and centre at the show, generative AI, despite the hype, is still at a very early stage. Too early, it seemed, for it to have filtered through in any meaningful way.

Sleep and rest are not the same and failure to address both can increase risk of burnout

---

Extend EV grant to second-hand purchases, says PwC

---

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

---

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

---

Shifting weather patterns, still-volatile input costs and questions around succession planning are among the issues troubling farmers going into 2024, a new survey has indicated, with one in three worried about whether they have enough capital to survive the first half of the year. The research, based on an Irish Farm Accounts Co-operative Society (IFAC) survey of more than 1,000 farmers across the State, found that some 48 per cent of respondent families did not have a successor identified. Ian Curran reports.

Over the past 13 years, more than 650 would-be entrepreneurs have shared their aspirations for their new businesses in the New Innovators column, writes Olive Keogh. What’s encouraging about this is that even though 90 per cent of start-ups fail, people keep trying. Their ideas may have changed to reflect opportunities in emerging areas such as sustainability and artificial intelligence (AI) but what continues to unite them is the belief that their product or service has the power to change the world.

Is the restriction on passenger numbers at Dublin Airport doing untold damage to our economy?

Listen | 39:09

The first clue that I had done something wrong when installing the Loqed smart lock came when I couldn’t get into my house, writes Ciara O’Brien in her weekly review slot. The app told me the door was unlocked, but the handle stubbornly refused to budge. That presented something of a dilemma. I was on the outside, no one was inside and the only other way into the house was behind a locked gate and a rather high wall.

The symbolism of Decathlon agreeing to become one of the anchor retail tenants at the Clerys Quarter development will not be lost on anyone who has followed the twists and turns of this saga in recent months, says Cantillon, who also finds that the latest Chinese economic data is painting a mixed picture.

Irish headquartered software start-up Lative has raised $3 million in a seed funding round that will help support the company’s growth. The funding round was led by Elkstone Ventures, with support from Enterprise Ireland. Handshake Ventures, which previously invested in Beautiful.ai, 1Qbit and SteamElements, has also come on board as a new investor, with existing investors WestWave Capital, and Future Five also backing the company again, alongside a number of angel investors. Ciara O’Brien reports.

Stay up to date with all our business news: sign up to our Business Today daily email news digest. 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.