Regulators have warned State utility Irish Water – now Uisce Éireann – that it will fail to reach its targets by the end of the year, the Sunday Times reported.
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has criticised the company, to which taxpayers have given €8 billion since 2020, for missing more than half the tasks it was assigned.
There was a significant fall in the number of leaks that the water company had prevented, according to the CRU, while waste water problems, including equipment breakdowns and blocked sewers, were double the number that the regulator had allowed for 2022.
Eamon Waters threatens to mothball Dublin city projects after planning refusal
Businessman Eamon Waters has criticised Dublin City Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for his proposed six-storey development on Baggot Street and threatened to stop investing in new projects in the city, the Business Post reported.
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In a rare public intervention, the waste tycoon rebuked DCC for not seeking further information from him on any of the issues it highlighted in its planning report for the Baggot Street property, saying he was “extremely disappointed” in the refusal of a “best-in-class” development. Waters said that proposed work on a number of other sites “will be mothballed indefinitely”.
“It really saddens me how DCC planners conduct their business,” he told the Business Post. “I will absolutely appeal this to the board and in light of the treatment I have received on this planning application from DCC [Dublin City Council], will not invest in any more development in the DCC district unless there is a fundamental change on how they conduct their business.”
Ireland taking FDI for granted
The Republic has become complacent about luring multinational investment, tech giant Amazon’s local boss Neil Morris warned recently, according to the Business Post.
According to Mr Morris, director of Amazon Web Services, the Republic takes the job-creating investment provided by overseas companies for granted. “Maybe we have become a little complacent about it and the contribution it makes,” he is reported to have told the Construction Industry Federation’s annual conference.
He argued that instead of restricting data centres, which his company builds, the State should actively court this business, as they are vital to foreign investors.
Victoria’s Secret mulls future of store on Grafton Street
The lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret is mulling the closure of its store on Grafton Street in Dublin. The Sunday Times reported that the company has been examining whether a sublet to another retailer is possible. A final decision is yet to be made.
The Grafton Street store is Victoria’s Secret’s only shop in the Republic, though it has signed a lease on a unit at Opera Lane in Cork.
The property is owned by the waste entrepreneur Eamon Waters, who bought it for €28 million in 2023. Victoria’s Secret opened on Grafton Street in 2017, signing a 20-year lease. British Next Plc bought a majority stake in the UK business in 2020. It operates the stores in the UK and Ireland.
Cork-based start-up gets €6m in backing from Intercom co-founders
Cork start-up SimpleStudy, backed by Intercom co-founders Des Traynor and Ciaran Lee, is weighing a launch on the Brazilian market following a successful entry into the UK, The Sunday Independent reported.
Oisin Devoy and Philip McKenna founded SimpleStudy, which aids students revising for exams, in 2020. It raised €750,000 earlier this year. Brazil is among the countries where it is considering a launch after entering the UK market this year. It is close to moving into France, the report stated.
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