Irish housing boom and bust, CCPC wants to tap phones, and the squeezed middle’s taxes

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) will ask the Government for powers to mount electronic surveillance and intercept communications, such as tapping phones and emails, to combat white collar crime. The Garda is the only State body organisation allowed to intercept communications for investigations. Mark Park has the exclusive

The current boom in property pricescould trigger another housing bubble, even though it is not being fuelled by a boom in credit, a leading housing expert at UCD has warned. Meanwhile, new figures from the ESRI shows that house prices here rose by a dramatic 431 per cent between 1995 and 2007, more than previously thought. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details

Paschal Donohoe has ¤800 million to give away in Budget 2019and lots of calls on the cash. What can the hard-pressed, so-called squeezed middle expect from the October budget? Cliff Taylor go through the options

In his weekly Caveat column, Mark Paul wonders why the announcement of 1,000 new jobs in Dublin by Amazon Web Serivces this week didn't garner more headlines.

Will Ireland's ‘squeezed middle’ get any relief in Budget 2019?

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‘Little or no scope’ for income tax cuts in budget, says ESRI

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Budget 2019: Varadkar prescribes tight fiscal regime

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Stop borrowing: that should be the priority for Budget 2019

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In our interview of the week, Citi's new chief country officer Cecelia Ronan tells Joe Brennan about how a traumatic time in her personal life proved to be a key turning point in her career.

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