Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc in the retail sector, with Mothercare the latest major casualty. Ciarán Hancock writes that the business is closing its 14 stores in the Republic, making almost 200 staff redundant.
With the impact of coronavirus on the property market still hard to judge, particular uncertainty hangs over the student accommodation sector which, as Barry O'Halloran reports, has seen enormous growth over the last three years.
The head of Irish Ferries owner ICG is worried that if the Republic subjects visitors from Britain to a two-week quarantine when Britain has exempted visitors from here from the same, the entire Common Travel Area could be at risk. Joe Brennan has the details.
Still on listed companies and Covid-19, Peter Hamilton has analysed the data and found that almost 70 per cent of top Irish publicly quoted businesses have either withdrawn revenue guidance or warned on their outlook in the last few weeks.
Joe Brennan reports that some non-performing mortgages originally issued by Irish Nationwide before the property crash could be running into fresh problems as the pandemic eats into household finances.
In more optimistic news, Charlie Taylor has spoken to the founders of Kildare company The Naked Collective, which makes healthy drinks and is hoping to raise €10 million for expansion.
Mark Paul has taken a virtual tour of some of the country's top hotels this week, asking how they plan to adapt to Fáilte Ireland's new operating guidelines. He hears of managers deciding on face masks for staff rather than visors because the latter may have too much of a "welder" look to them, and of the difficulty in encouraging five-star guests to follow one-way systems within properties. Needless to say, Ikea-style arrows on the floor are not under consideration.
In his Caveat column, Mark looks ahead to what might happen in about a month from now, when fresh virus data might prompt a debate on whether reopening the economy happened too quickly. He urges us all to "hold our nerve" when the conversation starts.
In his weekly economics column, John FitzGerald considers state aid within the EU, an issue that has come dramatically to the fore of late, particularly in the airline sector. He suggests that the time has come to develop a common EU framework for the provision of necessary state aid to "systemically important" companies that are in crisis.
Olive Keogh writes in praise of the HR manager this week. She acknowledges that the HR department may often traditionally have played second fiddle to more commercially driven parts of organisations, but notes that Covid-19 has upended this, and so many other embedded positions.
This week's Wild Goose is Tommy Byrne, a Dundalk native who lives a glamorous life as a racing car driver and instructor in Florida. He tells Barbara McCarthy about starting out as a mechanic and how he will never move back home.
And finally, The Irish Times today publishes its annual Top 1000 companies magazine, the definitive guide to Irish business. It is also available at irishtimes.com/top1000
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