Today's other business news stories in brief

NTMA sells €7bn to cover financing needs

Ireland sold €7 billion($11 billion) of 11-year bonds to cover its 2008 financing needs and said it may sell more securities later this year. The securities were sold to yield 50 basis points, or 0.5 percentage point, more than the German bund maturing January 2018, said Oliver Whelan, director of funding and debt management at the National Treasury, which manages debt sales on behalf of the government. "We've met the funding requirement for 2008," Mr Whelan said.

"We had anticipated selling €5 billion, but demand was higher than we expected. We may sell more later this year to cover the 2009 requirement, but that depends on market circumstances."

Davy, Barclays Capital, Calyon, Deutsche Bank AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc arranged the sale of the 2019 bonds.

Mining firm loses €260,390

Great Western Mining, the Irish-headquartered exploration company listed on London's PLUS market, recorded a loss of €260,390 for the nine months to the end of December last.

This figure compared to a loss of €226,098 in the 12 months to the end of March last year.

The group said the nine-month reporting period had seen it shift from pure exploration into "confirmation, validation and development".

The company, which concentrates on gold, silver and uranium exploration, is based in the US but has its headquarters established in Dublin.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

One in six Irish adults is confident they will become a millionaire, excluding the value of their home, according to a new survey.

When Standard Life interviewed 1,000 adults, 17 per cent said they expected to make a million and those in the 35 to 44-year-old age group were the most confident of doing so. An inheritance was the most likely route to fortune with almost a quarter of those expecting to make a million saying they believed it would come from this route. A further 21 per cent said they believed owning their own business was the most likely source with 18 per cent confident that winning a lottery would deliver riches.

House prices fall in first quarter, says Daft

House prices fell in the Republic during the first three months of the year, according to a report from property website Daft.ie.

The fall in prices over the first three months of 2008 was 1.2 per cent, Daft said.

Certain areas such as Wicklow and south county Dublin saw sharper drops, with prices down by up to 7 per cent.

The Daft House Price Report also found prices were down by 5 per cent on average in Cork and by 2.4 per cent in Limerick.

Council says unofficial 'business park' operating without planning permission

Clare County Council has confirmed that an unofficial "business park" in east Clare is operating without the appropriate planning permission and that it will now issue warning notices to companies based there advising them to cease operations until planning has been regularised.

The former Burlington textiles plant at Gillogue near Clonlara was sold by Shannon Development to a Limerick businessman in 2006 for an estimated €8 million. Since then, the operators have opened the 323,000 sq ft (30,000m sq) plant to several businesses with plans to attract additional firms to the site.