Post-Covid jobs boom; INM19 narrows to four; and Monkstown apartment plan

Up to 167,000 jobs could be created in the Irish economy over the next two years as it shrugs off the effects of the pandemic and consumer spending returns to more normal levels, the Central Bank has said. Eoin Burke-Kennedy crunches the numbers.

On a more cautious note, Eoin writes that the IMF says elevated inflation rates will persist for longer than expected as supply chain disruption and high energy prices continue in 2022.

Mark Paul reports that the secret data breach in 2014 at newspaper publisher Independent News & Media (now Mediahuis Ireland) which targeted the communications of the so-called INM19 – 19 people said to be relevant to the business interests of Denis O'Brien – homed in on just four former INM employees who had their entire email accounts reconstructed, the company has disclosed.

New figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland show that some ¤10.5 billion worth of home loans was drawn down by borrowers in 2021, the highest level since the financial crash more than a decade ago, writes Colin Gleeson.

Fed signals March rate rise as it fights rampant inflation

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Irish economy set to generate 167,000 jobs over next two years

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Grafter banks on luxury lure to draw in workers to new Dublin offices

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RTÉ raises its estimate of ‘lost’ licence funding to €65m

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Irish airports suffered some of Europe's heaviest falls in passenger numbers last year in the face of Government travel bans, new figures show – down three-quarters on the pre-Covid 2019 figures as the State imposed bans on "non-essential" travel and imposed curbs on incoming passengers. Barry O'Halloran has the details.

Fuel prices in Ireland has surged by a third in the last year and are now close to the highest ever recorded, writes Michael McAleer, making Ireland the 17th most expensive country in the world for fuel and 12th most expensive in Europe, according to AA Ireland.

Permanent TSB could get back to paying dividends following its€6.8 billion "transformational" purchase of much of Ulster Bank's loan book, according to Goodbody Stockbrokers.

A healthcare recruiter has won Court of Appeal backing in her quest for summary judgment of €750,000 against nursing home group FirstCare over its non-payment for relief staff in five nursing homes over nearly two years.

Plans for a 12-storey apartment block on Phibsborough have been turned down by Dublin City Council over inadequate storage and private amenity space, and a failure to achieve minimum bedroom sizes and widths in a number of the 96 units sought. Gordon Deegan reports.

Aidan Greene is taking over at marketing communications group Core, succeeding Alan Cox, writes Laura Slattery. Greene has been deputy chief executive of Core since 2014. Cox is walking away to launch a software company specialising in business transformation.

ZiggyTec, a company that has developed a platform to continuously monitor air quality inside buildings, has secured €2.5 million in investment from a number of well-known entrepreneurs. Charlie Taylor has the details.

In Commercial Property, Ronald Quinlan writes that US investor Greystar is closing in on the purchase of Dalguise House near the south Dublin village of Monkstown for around € 30 million with a view to developing several hundred apartments aimed towards the upper end of the capital's private rented sector market on the nine-acre site.

The prospect of future residential development potential saw strong interest in the sale of Applegreen's petrol station in the south Dublin suburb of Clonskeagh, writes Ronald Quinlan, after it was bought by a private Irish investor for €3.4 million.

In his column, analysing the Central Bank's first quarter report, Eoin Burke-Kennedylooks at the pandemic surge in female workforce involvement which has surprised some observers, and examines why it might have happened.

Finally, we have the answers to Ciarán Hancock's Christmas Business Quiz and the identity of the winners.

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