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Aer Lingus industrial action and a €20bn bill for housing

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

Holidaymakers may find their flights cancelled or delayed as a result of Aer Lingus pilots' strict work to rule.

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Wed Jun 19 2024 - 06:55

Industrial action at Aer Lingus and its likely implications for intending passengers is the big story this morning after the pilots’ union, Ialpa, yesterday announced an indefinite work to rule from Wednesday of next week. Barry O’Halloran reports on how that likely means delays and cancellations in the weeks ahead while Conor Pope sets out the rules around compensation to which disrupted passengers will be entitled and Colin Gleeson talks to travel agents who say demand for Aer Lingus seats has already flatlined in news that is bound to concern executives at the airline.

Housing is also in the news with the Department of Finance saying that building 50,000 homes a year in line with recent suggested targets will require funding of €20.4 billion a year, more than 80 per cent of it coming form private sources. A separate update from the Department of Housing says that a similar number of homes have been granted planning permission over the past three years under new planning rules that restrict bulk buying by investment funds or other groups. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details on both reports.

A separate report on building costs says that Dublin is now the fourth most expensive city across Europe in which to build with costs this year rising faster than everywhere else except Warsaw, writes Colin Gleeson.

Dublin’s stock exchange, Euronext Dublin, and related groups are urging the Government to establish a retail investment product along the lines of Britain’s very successful individual savings accounts (ISAs) as they look to boost the level of initial public offerings (IPOs) on the stock market here. Joe Brennan reports on the call for action in the upcoming budget.

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Speaking of stock markets, AI chip maker Nvidia leapfrogged Microsoft and Apple on Tuesday to become the most valuable company in the world, following months of explosive share price growth driven by demand for its chips and an investor frenzy over artificial intelligence.

Back to budget measures, Deloitte is also lobbying for change – in its case, more favourable capital gains tax treatment for owners selling their businesses, despite opposition from the ESRI and others even to existing measures that Deloitte says are insufficiently generous. It also wants a lower standard VAT rate and a €50,000 threshold before the higher income tax rate kicks in. Ian Curran reports.

Companies looking to win the €150 million Adare bypass road scheme contract have been told the motorway section of the project must be complete in advance of the 2027 Ryder Cup, writes Gordon Deegan.

In the courts, a judge has found that a pub lessee with alleged arrears of €441,948 engaged in a “Mexican standoff”, unlawfully holding the publican’s licence to prevent the landlord from reletting the Dublin premises.

In Commercial Property, Ronald Quinlan reports that Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is understood to have agreed to pay Nama about €18 million for a prime residential development site with scope for up to 370 homes just off Brennanstown Road in the south Dublin suburb of Cabinteely, a price that is a long way shy of the €35 million originally sought by CBRE when it brought the 29.4-acre site to market in 2018.

Separately, developer Sean Reilly is understood to have paid over €8 million for the former Siemens building and site at Sandyford Industrial Estate in south Dublin, which has planning permission for 190 build-to-rent apartments distributed across two blocks ranging in height up to 15 storeys along with two floors of office accommodation directly across from the Stillorgan Luas stop.

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