TikTok to hire additional 1,500 workers in Dublin – reports

Chinese social media giant Tiktok plans to add 1,500 workers to the 2,000 it will already employ in the Republic, says the Sunday Times.

The newspaper reports that property advisor, Cushman & Wakefield, recently sent estate agents a request for 13,935 sq m (150,000 sq ft) of long-term office space in Dublin.

“This is on top of the 19,510 sq m (210,000 sq ft) that Tiktok will take up at the Dublin’s Sorting Office, where it will accommodate up to 2,000 employees,” says the newspaper.

Property sources confirmed that the terms of the deal were being finalised. “Tiktok, which set up an Irish entity in 2018, has been on a recruitment drive over the past 20 months as it expands its technical and business operations here,” the Sunday Times adds.

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Ex-council houses leased back to State

Property funds are leasing former council houses back to the State for social housing, says the Business Post.

The newspaper reports that second-hand homes in old council estates are "now being rented to South Dublin County Council at an estimated rent of €1,500 a-month, with no option for purchase at the end of the 25-year lease".

The State originally built the homes before selling them to their tenants at discounts of between 40 per cent and 60 per cent to market value in the 80s and 90s, the Business Post says.

In some cases the property funds repossessed the homes as owners could not repay loans. In others, former council tenants or subsequent owners sold the houses to the investors.

Bremore port proposal

Developers of a proposed new port to rival Dublin’s are seeking to hire a planning team for the project, says the Sunday Independent.

Drogheda Port Company and Ronan Group Real Estate plan to build port at a site straddling counties Dublin and Meath at Bremore in a proposal that could involve them buying up to 1,000 acres near the M1 motorway.

The Sunday Independent reports that the pair are tendering for a planning team for the project.

"The team, once appointed, will begin pre-planning discussions with Meath County Council and An Bord Pleanála with a view to lodging a strategic infrastructure planning application," says the newspaper.

Bookies to ban credit cards

Irish bookmakers have agreed to ban the use of credit cards online and in shops, the Sunday Independent reports. Bookmakers have also agreed to a pre-watershed “whistle-to-whistle” advertising restriction for live sport.

The two initiatives are part of an updated code of practice for safer gambling introduced by the Irish Bookmakers’ Association’s (IBA), which outlines a set of industry commitments across a range of player protection measures. The papers reports that all IBA including Boylesports, Paddy Power parent Flutter Entertainment and Ladbrokes owner Entain, will adopt the latest version of the code which will be fully operational this year and which the IBA says “ represents a set of minimum commitments by the industry”.

UK’s national lottery

British lawmakers will begin reading submissions from interested parties to an inquiry into the future of the country’s national lottery this week, says The Observer.

Rivals, Czech gaming specialist Sazka Group, media tycoon, Richard Desmond and Italian lottery operator Sisal, are bidding to take over the franchise from long-standing incumbent, Camelot.

Meanwhile, members of the British parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport committee have launched an inquiry into the lottery.

Politicians plan the probe despite a row with the UK’s Gambling Commission, which says the bids are confidential, making it difficult to for it to answer questions about the process.